Teenager describes chaos at launch of Channel deaths boat
By Jon Donnison
Marcus, not his real name, is nervous and twitchy as he sits by the harbour wall in Calais.
The 16-year-old was one of more than 100 people who on Tuesday tried to scramble aboard a small inflatable dinghy attempting to cross the Channel to the UK.
The BBC witnessed a chaotic and violent scene, as some migrants attacked others with sticks while the French police fired tear gas.
Despite the clashes, the boat still set sail.
Five people died, including a seven-year-old girl, after the overloaded vessel ran into trouble soon after.
Marcus had already travelled through Sudan and Libya, followed by a dangerous journey across the Mediterranean to Italy, to reach northern France for the attempted Channel crossing.
He says he fled a life as a child soldier in South Sudan and would have been killed if he’d stayed, pointing to a scar on his leg where he says he was shot.
