A man from Senegal who was jailed for piloting a migrant boat across the Channel to the UK has failed in his bid to appeal. At least four people died when the boat broke apart during the crossing.
Ibrahima Bah is serving a nine-and-a-half year sentence for steering a dinghy from France to Britain in December, 2022. During the voyage, the boat broke apart and at least four of the passengers drowned. One was identified as Hajratullah Ahmadi from Afghanistan. Thirty-nine survivors were brought ashore in Dover.
The Court of Appeal on Wednesday (December 11) refused him permission to appeal the conviction and sentence, the Chief Justice Baroness Carr ruling that an appeal was not "arguable."
Bah joined the trial by video link, according to his supporters on the social media platform X.
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Family devastated
Bah’s family said they were "devastated" by Wednesday’s court decision, The Guardian reported. Speaking to the paper after the judgment, Bah’s sister, Hassanatou Ba, said: "This judgment is extremely sad news for Ibrahima and after so many efforts to get justice for him. It is so difficult for him in prison. His sentence was nine years, not nine months. He is trying to be brave in prison."
Reacting to the Court of Appeal outcome, the Free Ibrahima Campaign said Bah was a scapegoat for deadly border policies. "We will keep fighting for Ibrahima and others as they are criminalized for seeking safety and a better life in the UK," the group was quoted in The Guardian as saying.
Why was Bah jailed?
In February this year, a court found Bah guilty of manslaughter and facilitating a breach of UK immigration law. He had been arrested in December 2022 after the dinghy he was driving across the Channel broke apart next to a fishing vessel.
The smugglers who organized the crossing had given Bah free passage in return for steering the boat. During a retrial, he said they had forced him to drive and threatened to kill him if he refused. His account was backed up by other survivors who testified that he was beaten and forced to board the boat.
The court accepted that Bah has been coerced but said the pressure he had been under fell short of duress. The prosecution argued that Bah had owed the other passengers a duty of care as their pilot.
When sentencing Bah the judge in the Crown Court said: "What happened is an utter tragedy for those who died and for their families … This is also a tragedy for you. Your dream of starting a new life in the UK is in tatters."
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First shipwreck survivor to face manslaughter charges
Bah, who was not part of a criminal smuggling gang, was the first person in the UK to be convicted for piloting a boat and causing the deaths of fellow passengers.
Captain Support, a group supporting Bah and others facing criminal convictions for helping migrants, said at the time that his conviction "set a worrying precedent."
"People are forced into precarious and dangerous crossings by sea … then, they are blamed for it."
The Public Interest Law Centre, a UK legal charity, said Bah’s case highlighted structural racism in the criminal justice system, noting that he was convicted by an all-white jury and that witnesses had expressed anti-migrant sentiment and "racial stereotypes."
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