AN asylum-seeker sailing an overcrowded dinghy that sank in the Channel has been convicted over the deaths of four passengers.
Ibrahima Bah was steering the home-built inflatable when it began taking in water while carrying at least 43 migrants.
His passengers, who paid thousands of pounds to people-smugglers, had no life jackets, and there was no radio or distress flares on board.
Bah, who was piloting the boat in return for a free passage for himself and a friend, was convicted of four charges of manslaughter.
He becomes the first illegal migrant skippering a small boat to be found responsible for the harm to other occupants.
Bah, who left Senegal in 2019, claimed he first refused to pilot the boat, but set off in December 2022 after being beaten up by people-smugglers who threatened to kill him.
But 30 minutes off the French coast, his dinghy — built to carry just 20 people — was sinking, with water up to passengers’ knees. Bah, whose age is disputed, ploughed on despite the obvious danger.
A fishing boat, the RNLI and other rescuers brought 39 people to shore at Dover.
Four migrants, three of whom were never identified, drowned but it is thought at least one more body was never found.
Bah was convicted at Canterbury crown court following a retrial.
He was also found guilty of facilitating illegal entry to the UK. Sentencing is on Friday.
SOME 111 migrants crossed the Channel by small boat at the weekend despite thick fog.
They came from France in three vessels on Saturday amid “rapidly deteriorating” weather off the Kent coast.
French authorities stopped a further 132 from crossing the same day — including 75 on one inflatable dinghy.
It came after a small boat carrying 52 took 12 hours to make the 21-mile trip on Friday.
Some 1,716 migrants have crossed in 38 dinghies so far this year.
