Ten migrants now sentenced under new law for risking lives during small boat crossings
Ten people have now been sentenced for endangering others on small boats crossing the Channel after two migrants from Afghanistan and Sudan were jailed today.
Since January it has been illegal to do any act that puts others at risk of death or serious harm. That is often the case as small boats are overcrowded, too flimsy for a Channel crossing, not everyone wears a life jacket, and they are not equipped with flares, lights, or radios that can be used to signal for help.
Omar Heidari (left) and Manas Yuk
The pilot commits the offence if they have control of the boat for any time during the crossing.
The English Channel is one of the busiest stretches of water in the world and is criss-crossed by hundreds of large vessels every day. Inflatable small boats are designed for use close to the shore.
Those sentenced today at Canterbury Crown Court were:
• Omar Heidari, 34, an Afghan national arrived on 23 June with 95 others. Pleaded guilty to endangerment and jailed for 24 months.
• Manas Yuk, an 18-year-old Sudanese national, who arrived on 21 June with 82 others on board, including 13 children. He was jailed for 18 months and is this 10th person to be sentenced.
Kris Venkatasami from the Crown Prosecution Service, said:
“These men are the latest to be sentenced for endangering the lives of others while steering a small boat since it became a crime this year. All of them pleaded guilty and have been handed prison sentences.
“This shows the quality of the evidence gathered by UK Border Force and Immigration Enforcement officers which allows our prosecutors to present the strongest case possible in court.
“Those sentenced to more than a year in prison face being deported and if they make an asylum application their conviction will be taken into account.
“The new endangerment law is clearly working and there are more cases going through the courts, so the public can expect to see more convictions for those who recklessly endanger the lives of others.”
Minister of State in the Home Office, Anna Turley, said:
“Two more small boat pilots have been sentenced in a single day. That means ten pilots locked behind bars under the new endangerment offence in less than two months.
“If you risk the lives of others by bringing illegal migrants to British shores on dangerous small boats, you will face justice.
“These sentences, alongside a 74% surge in arrests for organised immigration crime, show that we are going further than ever before to crackdown the criminal smuggling gangs.”
Notes to editors
- Omar Heidari (DOB 21/05/1992) pleaded guilty on 31 July.
- Manas David Yuk (19/05/2008) pleaded guilty on 27 July. Onboard were 44 adult males, 27 adult females, and 13 children.
- Details of some others sentenced for endangerment his year can be found on the CPS website including the first sentences in June - First sentences for migrants who risked lives of others during small boat crossing | The Crown Prosecution Service
- All CPS data relies upon prosecutors and administrative staff manually applying monitoring flags at case level. This means these figures are not official statistics and should not be referred to as such.
- Endangerment is a crime under section 24 (E1A) of the Immigration Act 1971 that makes it an offence to do an act that caused or created a risk of the death or serious personal injury of others during a water crossing to the UK from France, Belgium or the Netherlands.
- It was inserted into the Immigration Act by section 21 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 and came into force on 5 January 2026.
The offence carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. For those in breach of a deportation order the maximum sentence rises to six years. - Kris Venkatasami is the Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS South East.