Page 4. South East Times. Issue 66
Education
Harwich ferry-jump
deportees ‘died
trying to reach UK’
Two deportees who died after
jumping from a ferry were trying
to swim back to the UK shore, an
inquest has heard.
Albanians Artur Doda, 24, and
Leonard Isufaj, 27, leapt from the
Stena Britannica, off Harwich,
Essex, on 26 February last year.
The pair had tried to enter the
UK hours earlier inside a lorry,
the inquest into their deaths in
Chelmsford heard.
Coroner Eleanor McGann recorded
conclusions of accidental death.
Mr Doda and Mr Isufaj were among
a group of 15 people from different
countries caught in a random x-ray
check at Harwich before making it
into the UK.
‘Tantalisingly close’
The inquest heard Mr Doda was
sliced by the “machete-like” motion
of the ship’s propeller while Mr
Isufaj drowned.
Both men were sucked underwater
almost immediately after they
jumped over the side of the ship,
ten minutes into its journey back to
Zeebrugge, Belgium.
Essex coroner Ms McGann said:
“The evidence suggests they were
intending to swim back to England,
something that they could see was
tantalisingly close to them.”
Insp Christopher Willis, from Essex
Police, told the hearing the sea
would have appeared deceptively
calm to the men.
“To swim to land with those tides
and the water temperature would
have been nigh-on impossible,” he
said.
“An Olympic swimmer would have
struggled.”
Speaking after the hearing, Mr
Isufaj’s cousin, Besnik Vata, 33,
from north London, said the case
highlighted the plight of many
immigrants.
“We heard that they weren’t
escorted on board the ship so there
was always a risk this would happen
- if I was in that position I would
have done the same,” he said.
Border Agency official Giles Young
said there was no policy of escorting
deportees in place.