Model’s warning after watching a man drown

AN ETHIOPIAN beauty queen has warned of the dangers of crossing the Channel after watching a fellow migrant drown during a terrifying voyage to Britain.

Selamawit Teklay, who represented her country in pageants around the world and ran a successful fashion label, fled the war-torn Tigray region of Ethiopia last year.

She made her way to Calais before boarding a crowded boat to cross the treacherous waters last November.

In an interview with the BBC’s Tigrinya language service, she said: ‘In that boat, I realised that the decision I had made was wrong. We’ve seen terrible things back home. But to cross this sea is so perilous that no one should try.’

The 27-year-old, whose beauty pageant appearances include the Miss Grand International competition in Vietnam in 2017, told how the boat’s engine fell off midway across the Channel, leaving them stranded. ‘An Arab man jumped into the sea to try to get it out. He couldn’t,’ she said. ‘Then one of our Tigrayan brothers went in. He never came back! We searched for him. We heard him shouting. We couldn’t find him.

‘We made desperate calls for help. However, the lifeguards arrived three hours later. Our brother drowned in front of me. I saw his demise with my own eyes.’

The incident came four days before another boat sank, killing 27 of the migrants on board, including an Ethiopian whom Ms Teklay had befriended while in a camp in Calais.

Ms Teklay fled Ethiopia after an uncle was killed in the civil war between government forces and rebels from the country’s former ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.

The migrants on her stricken vessel were eventually rescued by the coastguard. She is now claiming asylum.