An Egyptian man trying to claim asylum in the UK because his life is under threat of death in his home country was found heading to the UK in an overcrowded small boat.

Hazem Khfaga, 22, had boarded the inflatable vessel in France and was found in British territorial waters in the Channel along with 31 others on August 22.

The group, none of whom were British nationals, were intercepted by Border Force officials and brought to Dover.

After filling in forms in the port town and getting his details recorded, Khfaga was taken to Manston immigration processing centre in Thanet to await a decision to see if he would be allowed to stay in this country.

However, after some investigations by officials Khfaga was charged with not only arriving in the UK without valid entry clearance but also facilitating the entry or arrival of people into the country.

He admitted arriving in the UK without valid entry clearance when he appeared before magistrates in Folkestone on September 2, but the other charge was deemed to be more serious and sent to Canterbury Crown Court to be dealt with.

Khfaga was remanded in custody and sent to HMP Elmley but when the case was listed at crown court the CPS decided to withdraw the facilitating charge.

As a result, Khfaga only needed to be sentenced over arriving without valid entry clearance and the judge who was dealing with it sent it back to the magistrates court so he could be sentenced there.

He reappeared at Folkestone Magistrates' Court last week and the court heard Khfaga had not been able to further his asylum claim since being in custody as he was told by immigration officials it couldn't be done until he was sentenced.

Amanda Burrows prosecuting said: "He has no previous convictions and has essentially been in custody since he arrived."

The bench were also told he'd already spent more than 85 days in custody.

As a result magistrates decided to jail him for eight months and said the time he'd already spent in custody would count as days off that term.