A 17-year-old migrant from Sudan, Abdul Usman, has attempted to cross the Channel from France to Britain around 100 times on a small boat. Despite facing obstacles like police barring him from entry and threats from criminals to attack him for not having money, he stated that “that’s my route to freedom. I’ll try every day.”
Usman has been residing in a tent ‘jungle’ for seven months at Loon-Plage, near Dunkirk, vowing that he will never give up on his quest to reach his destination, according to Daily Mail.
“I want to leave France because there’s no life here. They don’t care about us,” he told the Sun.
The 17-year-old’s persistence seems to have paid off. As reported by the Sun, he was aboard a boat that successfully evaded police and departed from the beach on Saturday.
French authorities were seen engaged in a dramatic confrontation, slashing inflatable dinghies and using tear gas to deter migrants attempting to leave the continent. Despite their efforts, a new dinghy arrived shortly after, and Usman and other migrants quickly boarded, escaping to sea before the police could intervene.
Despite being informed of the enactment of the Rwanda Bill this week, which grants Home Office officials the authority to detain migrants for deportation to Rwanda, Usman remained undeterred.
“Nothing will stop me. I will get to England. I don’t want to be sent to Rwanda but I don’t fear going there.
“Nothing can be worse than here.”
It is unclear if Usman will succeed, as many migrants on the English Channel often find themselves in dangerous situations as the hull of a ship could capsize at any time and cause death.
In an interesting twist in development, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, has endorsed a policy of deporting individuals to third countries for asylum processing.
The European People’s Party (EPP), led by von der Leyen, has proposed a fundamental shift in European asylum law in their manifesto for the upcoming European elections in June.
European Parliament’s largest grouping EPP has pledged: “We want to implement the concept of safe third countries. Anyone applying for asylum in the EU could also be transferred to a safe third country and undergo the asylum process there.”
Rishi Sunak was reported in the media saying: “I said when I first became Prime Minister that others would recognize a meaningful deterrent is the only way to stop the boats and now even top parties in the EU are following our lead.”
