A 19-year-old man appeared at Folkestone Magistrates’ Court on Monday for allegedly facilitating attempted illegal entry to UK.
Ibrahima Bah was arraigned before Deputy District Judge Nicola Fleck following the capsizing of a migrant boat in the English Channel, resulting to the death of four people.
He denied the charge and was remanded by Judge Fleck as he awaits his appearance at Canterbury Crown Court on January 16.
Bah, said to be of no fixed address, was on December 14 charged with steering a boat in the Channel thereby facilitating an intended breach of UK’s immigration law by 43 to 48 persons who were not UK nationals.
The Royal Navy, Coastguard, ambulance service, police, French Navy and RNLI lifeboats were involved in a large-scale operation off the Kent coast on December 14 after reports of a boat in distress.
The rescue operation, which began at 2:16am, succeeded in saving 39 lives, JollofNews gathered.
A charge against Bah for knowingly facilitating the attempted arrival in the UK of people he knew or had reasonable cause to believe were asylum seekers was authorized by the Crown Prosecution Service, Kent Police said on Sunday.
The identities of the dead have yet to be established, local media reported.
