Shocking footage of French authorities handing out life jackets to Channel migrants but refusing to intervene has been shown in court.
The clip, recorded on a drone, shows a French vessel supposedly patrolling the coastline gently pulling alongside a dangerously overcrowded small boat.
Once in touching distance, officials on board passed several bright buoyancy aids to those crammed on the inflatable destined for the UK.
The boat was piloted by Sudanese asylum seeker Alnour Mohamed Ali, 26, who was today jailed for two years and three months in jail after he admitted endangering life at sea.
A second defendant, Afghan 32-year-old Mohammad Tajik, was handed a two-year jail term after he admitted the same offence over a separate crossing earlier this year.
The court heard he had consulted YouTube in an attempt to successfully steer the small boat he was in across the water to the UK.
Both defendants face being deported, given the length of their sentences.
But the footage of the French purportedly assisting migrants on their way to the UK will further underline claims the French are reneging on their agreement to try and stop the boats.
Alnour Ali, 26, from Sudan, has been jailed for 27 months
Ali, in the pink hat, circled, was holding the tiller of the dangerously overcrowded small boat, which made its way to the UK from France in April
In April, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood signed a three-year agreement to pay France £662million to help fund beach patrols aimed at reducing Channel crossings.
The Home Office said the arrangement would see officers ‘targeting and detaining’ migrants on the French coast with the aim of removing hundreds from beaches each year.
Under the deal, Labour will hand over £501million to cover five police units and enforcement activity on French beaches, with an additional £160million only being paid if new tactics to curb crossings prove successful.
But far from seeking to stop the boats, footage from April 9 appeared to show the French taking a much more relaxed approach.
Prosecutor Daniel Bunting told Canterbury Crown Court that Ali’s boat had more than 70 people on board when it was intercepted by UK Border Force – but did not make attempts to seek help from the French.
He said: ‘One can see people sitting astride the boat, their legs into the water. It is extremely crowded.
‘Some have life jackets, but many do not. It is clearly over-crowded, a gust of wind could have capsized the boats.
‘A French boat comes alongside the boat Mr Ali was on and distributes life jackets.
Mohammad Tajik, from Afghanistan, was handed a two-year jail term for his role in steering an inflatable boat to the UK in January
‘One can see the French boat runs alongside the boat Mr Ali was on, he had the opportunity to stop and seek help.
‘The boat was intercepted later and had left the French waters.’
He said the vessel, measuring approximately 9m by 3.5m, had an engine which was ‘insufficient’ for the crossing,
The flooring had been deflated and was lacking emergency equipment such as flares, paddles, lights, and a puncture repair kit.
Tajik was also sentenced for piloting a small boat which left France on January 17 this year, with footage of the crossing caught on a UK Border Force camera.
The prosecutor said: ‘One can see it is somewhat overcrowded for a crossing of this nature.
‘People sitting around the edge, which would appear to be not a safe way of travelling.
‘It is an overcrowded boat.
Ali, in the pink hat, is originally from Sudan
Tajik was steering this vessel towards the UK in January
‘There is a high risk of such a boat capsizing or flooding, with the potential for fairly serious injury or worse.’m
The court heard neither man was involved in the planning or organisation of each journey.
There were no casualties during either of the trips in which the defendants were at the tiller, the court heard, contrary to previous comments by the National Crime Agency.
His Honour Judge Simon James said the sentences needed to have an element of ‘deterrent’.
He said there was ‘understandable and increased public interest in the arrival of small boats’.
He said: ‘It has long been recognised that crossing the English Channel in a small and overcrowded inflatable boat is to undertake a perilous journey fraught with risk.
‘As the frequency of trips increased, so have the instances of tragedy.
‘The inherent dangers of seeking to navigate one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, in a vessel never designed to undertake such a journey are obvious.
‘However the risk of death and serious injury are significantly increased when boats have no navigational aids, are overcrowded, and those on board are not adequately equipped with safety equipment.’
The court heard Tajik fled Afghanistan after his father and brother were executed by the Taliban for refusing to carry out orders to poison soldiers.
He had a previous asylum application in Greece turned down before arriving in the UK.
Ali said he was forced to leave Darfur due to the civil war.
Neither man showed any emotion as they were handed their sentences.
