Migrant boat skipper charged with manslaughter after family drowned in Channel

Members of the family who died in their attempt to cross the Channel

Credit: PA/PA

The skipper of the migrant boat on which a family of five died this week has become the first Channel "trafficker" to be charged with manslaughter.

The 37-year-old Iranian was remanded in custody on Friday for "aggravated" manslaughter, which carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years and €150,000 (£135,000) fine.

The man told investigators he was one of the migrants seeking to cross the Channel but was exposed by other survivors from the overcrowded boat which was packed with at least 22 people, said Sébastien Pièvre, the Dunkirk prosecutor.

Kurdish Iranians Rasoul Iran-Nejad and his wife Shiva Mohammad Panahi, both 35, and their children Anita, nine, and Armin, six, died after becoming trapped in the cabin when the boat sank. Their 15-month-old son Artin and two other people also on board are missing, presumed dead.

Pictures of the family circulated on social media

None of the migrants on board are believed to have been issued with life jackets, and they set sail from the beach at Grand Synthe despite warnings from other migrants that it was dangerous and the boat was too flimsy to manage the 6ft waves whipped up by wind gusts of 24 knots.

Farhad Shekari, 28, from Sardasht, the same town as Rasoul and his wife, told The Telegraph: "The middle man was forcing people to get on the boat. He was saying: ‘Go, go, go.’"

Mr Pièvre said: "The [suspect] told us he was just a migrant trying to get to England, but our investigations suggest that his involvement in this senseless journey was greater than that. He is accused by the survivors who described him as being close to the people-smugglers."

The prosecutor said skippering the boat "would constitute aggravated manslaughter". 

The 37-year-old Iranian man has also been charged with criminal association, which carries a maximum ten-year jail term, aiding illegal immigration and endangering lives.

Mr Pièvre said the suspect was not thought to be the main organiser, adding: "Investigations are actively continuing to identify and arrest other members of the people-smuggling ring who may be higher in the hierarchy."

A French rescue helicopter landed close to a rescue vessel in Dunkirk, northern France, during the search operation for the missing migrants

Credit: AP/AP

Police also questioned a restaurant worker who was escorted at gunpoint out of Hobbies, a Kurdish restaurant that has become a focus of the investigation into the migrants’ failed attempt to reach Britain.

A cousin of Mr Iran-Nejad said that relatives in Iran were "devastated".

The family had sold their house before leaving Iran and paid £14,000 to get on to the boat, with a further £8,200 supposed to have been due when they arrived safely in the UK.

Mr Iran-Nejad was the eldest of five brothers who still live in Iran, along with his parents, and was the first in the family to want to come to the UK. "His only hope of coming to the UK was for a better future for the children," his cousin said.

On Friday, two Iranian men were each jailed for two years at Canterbury crown court for smuggling themselves and 29 people across the Channel into the UK on board two dangerously overcrowded rigid-hulled inflatable boats.

Ghodratallah Donyamali Zadeh, 26, and Ahmed Nayat Quadir, 20, were caught with the help of cutting edge technology including camera footage from a Tekever AR5 drone, capable of flying at 6,000 feet and staying aloft for 20 hours.