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Man jailed for two years after piloting small boat

Joshua AskewSouth East
PA A young man stands in front of a camera. He is holding a cap in his hands. PA
Basir Ramatullah (pictured) claimed to have fled the Taliban in Afghanistan

A man who steered an overcrowded small boat in the Channel has been jailed for two years.

Basir Ramatullah, from Afghanistan, was sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court on Thursday after earlier pleading guilty to endangering others during a sea crossing.

The 21-year-old travelled with 53 other migrants on an overcrowded inflatable boat across the busy stretch of water, the court heard.

Surveillance imagery found Ramatullah had been in control of the boat for more than two hours, prosecutor Ben Wild said.

His legal defence, Kiera Vinill, said he had fled the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Ramatullah had made the crossing, as many others do, "in the hope of a better life", the barrister added.

The court heard he spent his entire life savings on the crossing and intends to apply for asylum.

Barrister Vinill said Ramatullah did not choose to pilot the vessel.

He took the role after a human trafficker steering it jumped off the boat and the trafficker's companion "gave up" controlling it, she said.

"Nobody else [was] willing to handle the boat and that is why he then took charge."

PA A group of people are crowded on an inflatable boatPA
Ramatullah was pictured piloting the boat for more than two hours

Sentencing Ramatullah, Judge Edmund Fowler said: "The rib was overloaded, at least one person was not wearing a personal flotation device.

"As a Border Force vessel approached you, you moved away from the engine and sat on the floor."

The Afghan national had no previous convictions or previous immigration history in the UK.

Endangering others during a journey by sea to the UK is an offence that came into force in January as part of new border security legislation.

Steve Blackwell, from Immigration Enforcement, said the offence "has proven an important tool in our arsenal for bringing those flimsy small boats to justice".

A total of 162 people died in the Channel between 2018 and 2025, according to the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford.

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