The youngest survivor of a small boat tragedy in which four people died was a 12-year-old boy who fled Afghanistan after the Taliban murdered his family, the skipper who rescued him has said.
Raymond Strachan, 54, skipper of the Arcturus trawler, described being woken in the Channel by screams to find migrants clinging to the side of his boat in freezing waters in the early hours of December 14.
It was the worst incident in the strait for 13 months, in temperatures that fell to minus 4C. Four migrants died and 43 others were rescued from the sinking dinghy halfway between the English and French coasts.
Strachan’s fishing crew spent two hours pulling people from the water. He said the migrants came from Afghanistan, Iraq, Senegal and India, and told him they had each paid £5,000 to a smuggler in France.
He told The Sunday Post: “One of the youngest we picked up was an Afghan boy. He was the first I spoke to because he looked so young. I asked how old he was and he said 12. I took off his wet jacket and life jacket and told him to get down below and get into a warm shower. We made sure he was warm, dry and safe. Another two kids from Afghanistan, 12 and 13, were also rescued by my crew.”
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The skipper, who was told to take survivors to Dover, said a police officer had called him with a message from one of the 12-year-old boys.
“He said he wanted to thank us for saving his life because that night he thought he was going to die. He said he fled Afghanistan because all his family were killed by the Taliban,” Strachan said. “I was quite emotional to hear this.”
Kent county council has taken 12 children who were on the dinghy into care.
