UK jails 19-year-old asylum seeker over Channel dinghy crossing

A 19-year-old asylum seeker from South Sudan has been sentenced to two years and three months in prison after admitting to endangering people while steering an overcrowded dinghy across the English Channel.

Chan Mathok Atak was sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court in southeast England on Friday. He admitted the charge in connection with a crossing from France on July 23.

Boat carried 165 people

Prosecutors said Atak steered the approximately 14-metre dinghy for at least 90 minutes. They said he was believed to be one of two people who took turns piloting the vessel.

The boat was carrying 165 people, including 31 children aged between 14 and 17, according to the prosecution account. The court heard that it had only one working engine and no navigation or first-aid equipment.

Authorities said the dinghy was deflating and slowly taking on water before it was intercepted by the UK Border Force.

There was no evidence presented that Atak organised the crossing. His lawyer, Audrey Mogan, said there was “not a single shred of evidence” connecting him to the boat’s overcrowding or its lack of safety equipment.

New law targets boat steering

The prosecution was brought under a law introduced in January that targets people who steer boats when passengers’ lives are put at risk. The measure is separate from older offences, including assisting unlawful immigration.

Judge Sarah Counsell said “only an immediate custodial sentence can be justified” and warned Atak that he could still face automatic deportation once his sentence ends.

The crossing was described as the largest number recorded on a single small boat at that time. A later boat carrying 230 people surpassed that figure in August.

Government crackdown

The case comes as the British government pursues a wider crackdown on migration and small-boat crossings in the Channel. The first convictions under the new law were recorded in June, when an Afghan national and a Sudanese national were each jailed for at least two years for similar offences.

Home Office Minister Anna Turley said people who risk others’ lives by bringing migrants to British shores on dangerous small boats would face justice.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has described the scale of crossings as “unacceptable” and said addressing it would require “long-term, careful, painful work”. Government figures showed that the number of people crossing into the UK since January had fallen compared with 2025, although the figures supplied did not include the underlying totals.