CHAN ATAK JAILED FOR PILOTING CHANNEL 'MEGA DINGHY'

Chan Mathok Atak, from South Sudan, has been jailed for two years and three months for piloting a dinghy that carried a then-record number of migrants across the English Channel. Atak was sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court on Friday after admitting a single offence of endangering others during a sea crossing on 23 July. Two reports put the number of people on board at 165, while a third said 167. Prosecutor James Harrison told the court the vessel, dubbed a "mega dinghy", measured 3.9 metres wide and 14.3 metres long, roughly the length of a standard bus. Atak had pleaded guilty to the charge in August at the same court.

The boat had two outboard engines, only one of which was working, and its tubing had begun to deflate during the crossing from Calais, the court heard. Aerial footage showed one passenger "constantly pumping" in an attempt to re-inflate the craft. The same footage showed Atak operating the boat for 90 minutes while wearing a black jacket bearing an "Italia" logo, before crouching among other passengers and removing the jacket in what Harrison described as an attempt to avoid detection as the helmsman. Thirty-one children were on board, the youngest aged 14. Border Force vessels picked up the boat as it was deflating.

Judge Sarah Counsell told the court the offence was so serious that "only an immediate custodial sentence can be justified". She warned Atak that, as a foreign national, he was in principle liable to automatic deportation once his sentence is complete. Atak, assisted by an Arabic interpreter, wore a t-shirt and a large white rosary at the hearing. The record set by the July crossing has since been surpassed, with 230 people reported to have been on board a vessel that crossed the Channel in August.