A teenager has been charged with human trafficking after four people died while trying to cross the English Channel.
Ibrahima Bah, 19, of no fixed address, was arrested by police after Wednesday’s incident.
Four people died and 39 were rescued when a migrant boat capsized in the English Channel.
Bah was charged with “knowingly facilitating the attempted arrival in the UK of people whom he knew or had reasonable grounds to believe to be asylum seekers”, Kent Police said.
He has been remanded in custody and will appear in Folkestone Magistrates’ Court on Monday.
The Royal Navy, French Navy, Coast Guard and RNLI lifeboats were all involved in the major rescue operation off the coast of Kent which began in the early hours of Wednesday, following information about a vessel in distress.
The circumstances surrounding the deaths are being investigated by detectives from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Branch, assisted by the National Crime Agency.
The police are still trying to establish the identity of the deceased and locate their relatives.
More than 44,000 people have made the dangerous Channel crossing so far this year, according to government figures.
