A coroner has recorded conclusions of unlawful killing at the inquests of three migrants who died when their small boat sank attempting to cross the English Channel.
Fellow migrant Ibrahima Bah was sentenced to nine-and-a-half years’ detention at Canterbury Crown Court in February for manslaughter and facilitating illegal entry to the UK after the deaths.
He had piloted the “unseaworthy” boat between France and the UK on December 14 2022.
Coroner Patricia Harding held inquests into three of the men who died during the incident – Mohamed Lamine Toure, a student born in 1995 in Guinea, Moussa Kouyae, an 18-year-old student also from Guinea, and a third man who has not been identified.
Hejratullah Ahmadi, a 31-year-old married man from Afghanistan who had a six-year-old daughter at the time of his death, also died in the incident but the coroner did not hold an inquest for him because he was identified as part of the criminal trial against Bah.
Detective Inspector Ross Gurden, of Kent Police, told the Maidstone hearing there were 44 people on board the small boat of which four died, 39 survived and one person remained missing.
He said the occupants had all been in migrant camps in the Dunkerque and Calais areas before they were transported to a beach in northern France to go on a boat provided by people smugglers.
He said: “The boat is a large dinghy with an outboard engine that sits on a wooden panel on the rear.
“It was inflated on the beach immediately prior to launch. Some lifejackets were provided for the occupants but there were insufficient for every person on board.”
He said Bah was also a migrant but he piloted the boat in lieu of payment to the people smugglers.
Mr Gurden said the waters were calm but the temperature was freezing.
He said police received a report at 3.42am from the Coastguard that it was carrying out a search-and-rescue operation after the fishing vessel Arcturus had spotted the boat in distress.
Mr Gurden said 32 of the survivors were brought to shore by the Arcturus, with the rest rescued by the RNLI and Royal Navy.
He said the boat was “inherently dangerous” and added: “Examination of the dinghy shows the stitched seams to have ripped, with essentially the floor of the boat becoming separated from the sides.”
He said that survivors had said that about three hours into the crossing the water began to seep in, with the occupants bailing out the water.
He added: “Eventually the water levels overwhelmed them and panic set in amongst the occupants.
“It is with sheer luck that the Arcturus encountered them shortly afterwards.”
Ms Harding said that post-mortem examinations of the three men by pathologist Benjamin Swift gave a cause of death as drowning with immersion in cold water as a possible contributory factor.
Ms Harding said: “This was a tragic incident which should never have occurred when these four people who were part of the small boat migration found their way on to the boat which literally fell apart at the seams and began to take on water, and thereafter sank and they tragically drowned.
“I have heard the boat had 44 people on board, it’s remarkable that 39 were saved by the good efforts of those on the fishing vessel and the lifeboat services who quickly attended.”
During a retrial at Canterbury Crown Court, Bah said smugglers threatened to kill him if he did not drive the boat, but the prosecution said he was not telling the truth and he owed his fellow passengers a “duty of care” as their pilot.
Sentencing Bah, from Senegal, Mr Justice Johnson KC said that the boat was a “death trap”.
