Former skipper who piloted small boat packed with migrants across the English Channel becomes tenth person to be jailed for assisting unlawful immigration this year

 

• Fariboz Rakei took an inflatable boat across the Channel but was intercepted
• Boat designed to take eight people but it had 13 people on board including kid
• Border Force took the asylum seekers on board and transferred them to Dover A former Iranian sea captain who risked his life and 12 other asylum seekers by steering them across the Channel has been jailed for four and a half years.

  Skipper Fariboz Rakei took a rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB) across the Channel, one of the busiest waterways in the world, before they were intercepted by a Border Forder coastal patrol vessel on September 7 last year.

  The court heard how the four-metre-long RHIB Rakei was piloting is designed to carry a maximum of eight people but was packed to the gunwales with 13 onboard, including a seven-year-old boy.

  

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  Rakei denied all charges but was found guilty by the jury in less than an hour, following a three-day trial

  Once they had been intercepted, the Border Force vessel took the asylum seekers on board and transferred them to Dover, Kent.

  Rakei denied a charge of assisting unlawful immigration into the UK when he appeared at Canterbury Crown Court on Thursday. However, he was found guilty by the jury in less than an hour, following a three-day trial.

  The jury heard how Rakei had previously entered the UK via a small boat in June 2019. He was then removed from the UK to Germany in November of 2019.

  In his defence, Rakei told the court he had maritime experience from his time serving in the Iranian military and he had been put under duress to steer the vessel by the organised crime group who arranged the crossing.

  Rakei is the 10th person to be jailed for this offence since the start of this year, but he received the longest sentence handed out to date.The Minister for Immigration Compliance and Justice Chris Philp said: 'We are working day and night with our French counterparts, including through improved intelligence sharing and increased patrols in northern France, to stop these crossings.

  'As this case shows, we are also going after the people involved in facilitating this criminal trade.

  'People smugglers are endangering life.

  'These crossings are not only illegal but also unnecessary, as France is a safe country with a well-functioning asylum system.

  

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  Once they had been intercepted, the Border Force vessel took the asylum seekers on board and transferred them to Dover, Kent

  'Furthermore, we are changing our asylum system to make it fair to those who play by the rules, but firm on those who seek to abuse them.'

  Clandestine Channel Threat Commander Dan O'Mahoney said: 'Steering a vessel like this, for any duration of its journey across the Channel, is a criminal offence that puts lives in danger.

  'It is all the worse when one of those lives is only seven years old.

  'These crossings are only possible if someone is willing to pilot the vessel and we want to deter people from taking the helm. 

  'That is why we will continue to pursue those who do so and ensure their reckless actions have serious consequences.'

  The Home Office has scaled up the use of criminal offences against migrants who are seen at the helm of dinghies and small boats.

  On January 22 this year, Iranian asylum seeker Fouad Kakei was jailed for two years.

  He twice tried to ferry a total of 36 fellow migrants across the Channel in overloaded dinghies  

  The 30-year-old steered the inflatable boats from France to the UK coast - first with 27 people, then after that bid failed, with another 11 passengers.

  On February 18, a Kuwaiti man who steered an overcrowded boat across the Channel with 11 other migrants on board was jailed for three years and nine months.

  Mahmoud Al Anzi, 24, had denied a charge of assisting unlawful immigration to the UK during his trial at Canterbury Crown Court.

  A Home Office source said tougher sentences would be intended to 'send a clear message' that the law would treat smugglers on a par with those suspected of serious violent crimes.

  More than 500 migrants have arrived in Britain across the Channel since the start of 2021 – nearly double the rate seen in the same period last year.