Two 22-year-old men have been charged with immigration offences as part of an investigation into the deaths of five migrants, including a child, who died trying to cross the English Channel, the National Crime Agency have said.
Yien Both, a 22-year-old from South Sudan, has been charged with assisting unlawful immigration and attempting to arrive in the UK without valid entry clearance.
Tajdeen Adbulaziz Juma, a 22-year-old Sudanese national, has been charged with attempting to arrive in the UK without valid entry clearance.
Both men have been remanded in custody and are expected to appear before Folkestone Magistrates’ Court later on Friday.
A third man, an 18-year-old from Sudan, has been bailed pending further inquiries.
The five people who died were onboard a vessel designed for a maximum of 20 people on Tuesday. They include a girl who was six, a woman in her 30s and three men.
Migrants on the boat just after the incident on Tuesday (The French Maritime Prefecture captured the photo)
The massively overcrowded small boat with 112 people on board briefly ran aground off the northern French coast at Wimereux, near Boulogne-sur-Mer
A dingy crammed with migrants was seen arriving in Dover, escorted by a French warship later on Tuesday. It was believed to be the boat containing the remaining survivors
However, after the dinghy was overrun by 50 men from sub-Saharan Africa minutes before it was due to set off from France, they were crushed to death.
The boat had 112 people on board when it left from France with 402 migrants crossing the Channel in a total of seven boats that day.
Details of the incident were revealed by French state prosecutor Guirec Le Bras on Wednesday.
The five people who died were thought to have suffocated in the crush off a beach at Wimereux, near Boulogne-sur-Mer, on Tuesday morning.
Mr Le Bras added: ‘At the time of departure, between 40 and 50 migrants reportedly came out of the dunes and forced themselves onto the boat, crushing many people already on board.’
‘The testimonies of the people who were brought back to the dock in France do not suggest drownings or the fact that the boat capsized at any time.’
Rescue boats were also seen off the coast of northern France as emergency services searched for survivors
Despite the deaths, the men who had stormed aboard, and displaced most of the paying voyagers, were allowed to continue of their journey to England.
They were first escorted by the French Navy, and then the British authorities took over.
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