Channel migrant boat pilot Chan Atak jailed in UK

Chan Atak, a 19-year-old asylum seeker from South Sudan, was jailed in the UK for two years and three months for piloting a Channel migrant boat carrying 165 people.

Canterbury Crown Court in southeast England sentenced Atak on Friday for endangering others during a sea crossing, a new offence that entered into force in January.

Atak had admitted the offence last month. The boat he steered on July 23 carried what was then a record high number of migrants for a Channel crossing.

The court heard the dinghy had two outboard engines but one was not working, and tubing on the boat had started to deflate.

Prosecutor James Harrison said aerial footage showed Atak operating the boat for 90 minutes before later trying to avoid detection as the helmsman by removing his jacket.

Defence lawyer Audrey Mogan urged the court to consider Atak's young age and said he had escaped violence in South Sudan. Judge Sarah Counsell said he had played an important role in controlling and navigating the vessel and that his involvement was not fleeting or incidental.

The court also heard that, as a foreign national, Atak could in principle be liable to automatic deportation. In June, two other people were jailed for at least two years after becoming the first convicted of the new endangerment offence.