LONDON: A 19-year-old man has been charged with manslaughter after four people died trying to cross the Channel to the UK in a small boat, police said on Wednesday.
Ibrahima Bah was initially charged with facilitating illegal entry to the UK following the incident in December last year.
A boat packed with migrants got into trouble in freezing temperatures, sparking a rescue operation that brought 39 people to safety.
But four people were pronounced dead. Their identities are still unknown but a coroner’s inquest has been told they may have been from Afghanistan and Senegal.
Kent Police in southeast England said Bah was due to face trial later this year for the facilitating illegal entry charge.
He will make a first appearance in court on the more serious charge before magistrates in Folkestone on Thursday.
The capsizal came just over a year after at least 27 people died in the Channel trying to reach the UK from northern France.
Record numbers of people attempted the perilous crossing last year, despite claims by the UK government that the country’s departure from the European Union would help tighten borders.
Latest figures show that 4,844 people have been detected in small boats and brought ashore so far this year.
Ministers have proposed tough measures to crackdown on the practice, including a proposal to deport failed asylum seekers to Rwanda, which has caused a human rights outcry.
Teenager charged with manslaughter after English Channel capsize
https://arab.news/w59vk
Teenager charged with manslaughter after English Channel capsize
- Ibrahima Bah was initially charged with facilitating illegal entry to the UK following the incident in December last year
- Four people were pronounced dead
UK upper house approves social media ban for under-16s
LONDON: Britain’s upper house of parliament voted Wednesday in favor of banning under?16s from using social media, raising pressure on the government to match a similar ban passed in Australia.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Monday he was not ruling out any options and pledged action to protect children, but his government wants to wait for the results of a consultation due this summer before legislating.
Calls have risen across the opposition and within the governing Labour party for the UK to follow Australia, where under-16s have been barred from social media applications since December 10.
The amendment from opposition Conservative lawmaker John Nash passed with 261 votes to 150 in the House of Lords, co?sponsored by a Labour and a Liberal Democrat peer.
“Tonight, peers put our children’s future first,” Nash said. “This vote begins the process of stopping the catastrophic harm that social media is inflicting on a generation.”
Before the vote, Downing Street said the government would not accept the amendment, which now goes to the Labour-controlled lower House of Commons. More than 60 Labour MPs have urged Starmer to back a ban.
Public figures including actor Hugh Grant urged the government to back the proposal, saying parents alone cannot counter social media harms.
Some child-protection groups warn a ban would create a false sense of security.
A YouGov poll in December found 74 percent of Britons supported a ban. The Online Safety Act requires secure age?verification for harmful content.
