19-Year-Old Charged in Connection With English Channel Boat Deaths

Members of the Dover lifeboat place a body bag on a stretcher after returning to the Port of Dover following a large search and rescue operation launched in the English Channel off the coast of Dungeness, in Kent, southeast England, on Dec. 14, 2022. Gareth Fuller/PA Media

A 19-year-old man has been charged with facilitating illegal entry into the UK in connection with the sinking of an inflatable boat in the English channel during which four people drowned.

Kent police announced on Sunday that as part of an investigation into the incident, Ibrahima Bah, of no fixed address had been charged with“knowingly facilitating the attempted arrival in the United Kingdom of people he knew or had reasonable cause to believe were asylum seekers.”