Four asylum seekers sentenced for piloting dinghies across the Channel have had their convictions quashed in a case which throws into doubt the government's approach to people smuggling.

The Iranians made the treacherous trip on separate occasions between 2019 and 2020, with one claiming he had control of the tiller for a matter of seconds.

But today the Court of Appeal ruled it had not been proven they intended to enter the UK illegally and that simply attempting the crossing was not illegal.

The Home Office had “misunderstood” the law, Lord Justice Edis, Mrs Justice May and Sir Nicholas Blake ruled.

Asylum seekers stopped in the Channel or detained have not legally entered the UK, they said,

The judgement adds: “As the law presently stands, an asylum seeker who merely attempts to arrive at the frontiers of the United Kingdom in order to make a claim is not entering or attempting to enter the country unlawfully.

“Even though an asylum seeker has no valid passport or identity document, or prior permission to enter the United Kingdom, this does not make his arrival at the port a breach of an immigration law.

"A heresy about the law had been adopted by those who were investigating these cases [Border Force], and passed on to those who prosecuted them, and then further passed on to those who were defending them and finally affected the way the judges at the Canterbury Crown Court approached these prosecutions.”

Seven more cases will be heard in January.

Samyar Bani was branded "dangerous" and jailed for six years in 2019 but was released early.

He had fled his home country fearing death after converting to Christianity and crossed Europe ending up in the Jungle camp.

He would then be part of a small crew to guide the small rubber boat across the world's busiest shipping lane in the dead of night with no lights.

They were picked up seven hours later still only mid-way through the crossing and had a nine-year-old child on board.

Mr Bani, then 35, denied the offence but was convicted at Canterbury Crown Court. He'd earlier had his asylum claim rejected.

He told the BBC: "I lost everything because I came to the UK for an asylum claim.

"I'm not a criminal, not a smuggler. I just sat in a boat and came here for asylum claim."

The Court of Appeal case hinged on whether the men intended to enter illegally.

Mr Bani's jury was wrongly told he had broken the law as soon as he entered British waters.

Ghodratallah Zadeh, who was jailed for two years after admitting assisting unlawful immigration, had been wrongly told he had no defence.

His conviction was also quashed.

Fariboz Rakei's conviction was also quashed by judges and he will face a retrial.

He was jailed for four-and-a-half years in March after steering a boat containing 12 others, including a seven-year-old boy.

He had been deported from the UK in 2019.

Mohamoud Al Anzi's conviction was also quashed.

The 24-year-old piloted a boat of 12 across the stretch in June 2020 and was jailed for three years and nine months.