Two Men Charged After 5 Migrants Drown in Channel

Two men have been charged with offences stemming from an attempt to cross the English Channel in a small boat which led to five people being killed off the coast of France earlier this week.

Yien Both, 22, from South Sudan, has been charged with assisting unlawful immigration and attempting to arrive in the UK without valid entry clearance.

Sudanese national Tajdeen Abdulaziz Juma, 22, has been charged with attempting to arrive in the UK without valid entry clearance.

Neither of the men have been charged with manslaughter in connection with the deaths.

Both men have been remanded in custody and are due to appear at Folkestone Magistrates Court on Friday.

They are expected to go on trial at Canterbury Crown Court later this year.

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The National Crime Agency (NCA) said a third man, an 18-year-old from Sudan, has been bailed pending further enquiries.

The NCA said it continued to support the French investigation into Tuesday’s incident, which led to five bodies being washed up on a beach at Wimereux, near Calais.

Earlier this month it was revealed there has been a surge in the number of Vietnamese migrants taking part in small boat crossings.

The prime minister’s official spokesman said the “increasing number of Vietnamese” was one reason why the Safety of Rwanda Bill should be passed by Parliament.

NCA officers arrested a 23-year-old woman at a house in Croydon, a 64-year-old man in London and a man, aged 34, in Leicester.

All three have been charged with assisting unlawful immigration and appeared at Croydon Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

A fourth individual, a 25-year-old man, was also detained and will face extradition proceedings to France, where he faces people trafficking charges.

Twelve others were arrested in the Paris area, suspected of being linked to the same people smuggling network.

The NCA said, in a statement: “Investigators allege the group were involved in advertising illegal immigration into the UK in social media posts aimed at the Vietnamese community, charging migrants thousands of pounds to make the crossing.”

The number of Vietnamese crossing the Channel more than doubled from 505 in 2022 to 1,323 in 2023.

They are now the biggest cohort of small boat migrants, with up to 20 Vietnamese nationals on each craft.

The NCA’s director of threat leadership Chris Farrimond said: “Vietnamese nationals now make up a large number of those we see arriving on small boats. We allege this group were advertising their crossing services on social media to encourage others from their country to make the same treacherous journey.”

British Home Secretary James Cleverly (L) and Rwanda's foreign minister Vincent Biruta (R) pose for the cameras after signing a treaty in Kigali, Rwanda, on Dec. 5, 2023. (PA)

Home Secretary James Cleverly said: “We are using every possible lever at our disposal to crack down on people smugglers and break their supply chains. Just last week, we signed a new agreement with Vietnam, strengthening our cooperation on illegal migration.”

He said, “Together with law enforcement agencies such as the NCA, our French partners, and other countries like Vietnam, we are committed to dismantling the criminal gangs who are trying to turn a profit by abusing our borders.”

In 2019 a lorry driver, Maurice Robinson, reported to police that 39 Vietnamese migrants had died in the back of his vehicle after it came off a cross-Channel ferry at Purfleet in Essex.

Robinson later admitted he was involved in people trafficking, pleaded guilty to 39 counts of manslaughter and was jailed for 13 years.

In July 2023 the last member of the gang, Marius Draghici, was jailed for 12 years for his role.