The migrant dinghy in which five people died was chaotic, overloaded and packed with people carrying weapons and fighting, according to one of the passengers who was on board, speaking exclusively to Sky News.

Heivin, 18, confirmed the boat was stormed by a rival group of migrants, armed with sticks and knives, as it was preparing to set off.

She said: “People were fighting, people were getting stepped on, they were dying and being thrown off.”

She said she fell into the water but was pulled out by another person on the boat. Two other passengers who fell into the water, including a young girl, drowned. Three other people died on the boat.

Heivin said she “really hated” the group of people who hijacked their boat, insisting they should take the blame for what happened.

“They caused a huge tragedy,” she said.

“It was because of them that people died.

“If they hadn’t come and started fighting, none of this would have happened.”

Read more:
Arrests after deaths of five people who tried to cross Channel
Migrants explain why they won’t be deterred by Rwanda bill

The tragedy happened in the early hours of Tuesday morning in the waters off the French coastal town of Wimereux.

The boat, which launched with 112 people on board, stopped on a sandbar only a few hundred metres from the shore.

By the time emergency services arrived, it was clear people had died, both on the boat and in the water.

Two men have been charged with immigration offences in connection with the investigation into the deaths of the five migrants.

“I fell into the water but a man helped me up,” Heivin said.

“Everyone was climbing aboard and there were too many people – over 110 of us.

“I had tried to be at the front, but after I fell in the water I sat on the edge of the boat and didn’t go towards the other end – that’s where people were fighting.

“I thank God that I didn’t get into the top part of the dinghy. I would have suffocated. I thank God for that every day.”

She said her group, comprising between 50 and 60 people, had arrived at the beach in Wimereux after following the instructions of the people smugglers who had taken their money in exchange for arranging a passage to Britain.

Hidden away, they had waited for the smugglers to prepare the dinghy. She then saw police officers and was told simply to run towards the water.

At that point, the rival group emerged as well, clambering into the boat along with the people who had paid the smugglers.

👉 Listen above then tap here to follow the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts 👈

Heivin said she saw migrants from this group carrying sticks and knives, squaring up to both the police and the original passengers.

When the boat set off, exceptionally overladen, it meandered towards the Channel, but there was still fighting and it is clear that some people were being crushed.

“I was aware there was a fight,” Heivin said.

“They were shouting that people were stuck underneath other people, that they couldn’t get out, that some were falling under people’s feet.”

Follow Sky News on WhatsApp

Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News

Tap here

Heivin has spent seven months travelling across Europe since leaving Iraq. She said she wanted to get to Britain because “it is a better country for me, definitely in terms of the language but also, in many other other ways, it is better than the rest of Europe”.

She’s made 30 attempts to cross the Channel, but has failed each time. Sometimes it has been the French police who have destroyed boats while other times the boat on which she was travelling broke down. One time, the boat failed only an hour from British waters.

She is undeterred by the trauma that she underwent, however, and she intends to try again to reach Britain as soon as possible. “Perhaps this weekend,” she said.

Two men have been granted conditional bail after being charged with spying for China.

Former parliamentary researcher Christopher Cash and co-defendant Christopher Berry were charged under the Official Secrets Act after a counterterrorism investigation.

The men appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday but were not required to enter any pleas to the charge.

It is alleged that between January 2022 and February 2023, Cash obtained, recorded and published information “for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state” and which could be “directly or indirectly, useful to an enemy”.

Berry is accused of the same offence between December 2021 and February 2023.

Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring granted both men conditional bail, which in Cash’s case included not contacting MPs or any other staff of parliamentarians and not entering the parliamentary estate.

Cash was told he was permitted to contact his local MP on constituency matters.

He and Berry were also told not to travel outside the UK and not to contact each other. They were also ordered to sign on at a police station.

China has dismissed the charges as “self-staged political farce”.

Cash previously worked as a parliamentary researcher and was closely linked to senior Tories including Tom Tugendhat, now security minister, and Alicia Kearns, who serves as chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.

He was director of the China Research Group, which was initially chaired by Mr Tugendhat and then Ms Kearns.

Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle previously told MPs two people had been charged on a matter “relating to national security”, one of whom was a parliamentary pass holder.

Both defendants will appear at the Old Bailey for a preliminary hearing on 10 May.

Loading… Loading…

Needhamanalyst Kyle Peterson initiated coverage onAffirm Holdings IncAFRM witha Hold rating.

Affirm is a leading provider of buy now, pay later (BNPL) services, with a broad range of product offerings and notable partnerships, most notably withAmazon.Com IncAMZN andShopify IncSHOP , the analyst noted.

While Peterson flagged Affirms diverse product suite and expects the market for BNPL services to generate healthy growth, he rated the stock Hold due to a combination of valuation (~32x his fiscal 2026 EPS estimate), elevated stock-based compensation expense (46% of LTM revenue), and a growing mix share of interest and other lending-related income (~65% of revenue), which he expect to make significant multiple expansion challenging.

Also Read:Is Affirm Poised for a Comeback? Analyst Highlights Opportunity in Recent Dip

Peterson could become more constructive on the shares in case of a pull-back or if merchant and card network revenue growth becomes a larger piece of the story.

The analyst noted Affirm as a long-term winner in the domestic BNPL space, a large and growing market with a projected 20%+ CAGR over the next 5-10 years based on industry market research reports.

In addition, there are notable opportunities for Affirm to scale internationally, especially given the success other BNPL providers, such as Klarna (private), have had in international markets, per the analyst.

Peterson noted that Affirms technology-related revenue (merchant and card network) should be valued at a higher multiple than its lending-related revenue, given the absence of credit risk and greater capital efficiency.

However, he added that much of Affirms growth has been due to outsized lending-related revenue (interest income, gain on sale, and servicing) in recent quarters.

Lending-related income is ~65% of revenue today, which he noted will cause investors to scrutinize Affirms profitability-based valuation metrics increasingly.

Stock-based compensation equaled 46% of Affirms revenue in calendar year 2023, which Peterson estimates is the highest among a peer group of digital lending and FinTech companies.

While Peterson noted stock-based comp as a cash-efficient way to hire and retain quality employees, he expects this to be a drag on the valuation, especially since the related dilution is likely to be ongoing, with Affirm establishing an annual dilution target of <=5% in the near-term and <=3% over the medium term. This is a long-term headwind for the stock.Loading… Loading…

The analyst expects the headwinds above to keep the shares range-bound over the next 12 months.

Affirm stock gained 202% in the last 12 months. Investors can gain exposure to the stock viaTidal ETF Trust II Pinnacle Focused Opportunities ETFFCUS andAmplify ETF Trust Amplify Online Retail ETFIBUY .

Price Action:AFRM shares traded lower by 0.36% at $33.97 on he last check Wednesday.

Also Read:Affirm and Robinhood Make It To Top FinTech Stocks for 2024 Analyst Says It Promises Growth for Average Americans

Photo via CompanyLoading… Loading… Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.