Sudanese migrant who walked 31 miles through the Channel Tunnel to Britain granted asylum, MPs Condemned it

 

MPs last night condemned a decision to grant asylum to a Sudanese migrant who walked 31 miles through the Channel Tunnel to Britain. Haroun, 40, will now be given state-funded accommodation in a B&B, flat or house and is entitled to a weekly allowance of £36.95. He will also be allowed free NHS healthcare, prescriptions, dental care and eyesight tests.

Giving Abdul Rahman Haroun refugee status sent the wrong message to others desperate to enter the country, MPs said.

Damian Collins, the Conservative MP for Folkestone and Hythe, said: ‘People who break the law should lose the right to asylum.

‘What we want to do is send a message to those people in Calais that if you try and break into our country by hiding in vehicles or trains – or by walking through the Channel Tunnel – you will immediately lose your right to making an asylum claim in this country.

‘This is completely the wrong message to send to other migrants waiting in Calais.’

His perilous journey had taken 11 hours, and he would have been just a few feet from trains travelling at 100mph.

The Sudanese national, who had previously pleaded not guilty to a charge of ‘obstructing an engine or a carriage using a railway’, appeared in court yesterday via a video link from Elmley Prison.

Philip Bennetts QC, prosecuting, told Canterbury Crown Court in Kent that Haroun had been granted asylum, adding: ‘We would ask for 14 days to consider the impact of that.’

Judge Adele Williams told Haroun through an interpreter: ‘Now that you have been granted asylum to remain in the United Kingdom, the prosecution in this case just need 14 days to consider whether to proceed with this prosecution against you.’