SOMALI fisherman Hussein Abdifatah shakes his head and laughs when asked about the UK Government’s troubled plan to send migrants to Rwanda.
Gazing across the wheat fields that stretch for miles outside the French town of Dunkirk, the asylum seeker claims some 150 people now plan to cross the Channel to England EVERY DAY this summer after judges banned their deportation to Africa.
Hussein Abdifatah laughed when asked about the UK Government’s troubled plan to send migrants to Rwanda
The ruling was a talking point for those seeking refuge as they checked their mobile phones on the rubbish-strewn rural lanes outside Dunkirk
Three legal chiefs made the ruling at the Court of Appeal last week.
And it is thought numbers coming to the UK could swell further as ruthless people traffickers openly boast on TikTok that Thursday’s legal decision makes the hazardous journey more appealing.
According to reports, one advert on the social media site used news footage of the Rwanda ruling to tell Albanians potentially seeking refuge: “There is no return for Albanians who go to England by boat. Contact me if you want to go as well.”
One member of the smuggling gang who produced the ad — when asked what the Rwanda veto meant for asylum seekers — said: “They are not returning people . . . there is not any law to return you. Only if you have been before in England and have been deported.”
Two out of three Court of Appeal judges agreed it would be a breach of human rights to send asylum seekers to Rwanda to have their claims processed.
The news was a talking point for those seeking refuge as they checked their mobile phones on the rubbish-strewn rural lanes outside Dunkirk.
But Hussein, 26, said that — with the Rwanda policy famously hammered by legal challenges — many never took the threat of being sent there seriously in the first place.
He told us: “Every day I see about 150 people leaving to make the trip to London. And I see 100 new people arriving here every day.
“This camp is huge. I am certain there are at least 1,000 people here right now. They are sleeping all over the place.
“No one here took the Rwanda thing seriously. People will laugh when you ask them about it. How was the UK Government ever going to send people over there?
“When you have family living in Britain, you have a right to stay. They cannot make you leave.
“Did you really think that was going to happen? I lived in Kenya for five years and I can tell you, there is no way anyone was ever going to send me back to Africa.”
Muhamed Hasan, 23, said he too would be happy to move to Rwanda
Pakistani migrant Bost Mohmand has been stuck in Dunkirk for more than two years
He added that he knew the risks of crossing the Channel but was prepared for it, insisting: “I am ready to risk my life to get out of here. I used to be a fisherman in Somalia and the smugglers tell me if I drive the boat, they will let me go to London for free.
“Everyone here wants to get to the UK but it costs a lot of money, about a thousand euros.
“I would be happy to stay in France, but this is a bad country.
“They give me 200 euros a month and that is not enough to eat and find a place to live.
“I sleep on the floor every night and I don’t have a blanket or a phone to call my family. A man stole my phone from me.”
Yet the number of people sleeping rough in the makeshift camp he calls home — next to a disused railway track in rural France, 40 minutes outside Calais — never seems to change.
Those who succeed in making it to the UK are quickly replaced by new arrivals from Africa and the Middle East.
Hussein added: “People here are desperate and you see people taking drugs all the time.
“At night you have to watch your back as they will try to kill you while you sleep so they can steal your money to pay the smugglers.
“I have an auntie and brothers in London and they have British passports, but they won’t help me so I am stuck.
“I don’t want to drive the boat as I am scared I will get lost and drown.
“I don’t know how I will get out of here and I am worried I will go crazy. I am crying every day.”
According to those we spoke to, the camp’s mood has not changed and escape remains on everyone’s minds.
Ruthless people traffickers openly boast on TikTok that Thursday’s legal decision
Rishi Sunak says he will do ‘whatever is necessary’ to disrupt criminal gangs operating small boat crossings
The same grim sense of determination could be seen in the eyes of its desperate inhabitants as they gathered supplies from charity workers or searched the ground for discarded cigarette ends.
Some even expressed the view that they would rather end up in Rwanda than be stuck in France, where they claim the authorities treat them as sub-human.
Pakistani migrant Bost Mohmand has been stuck in Dunkirk for more than two years.
The 29-year-old said: “The smugglers are not good people. They are very bad people. I would leave for the UK today if I had the money.
“But I don’t have any money and that is all the smugglers care about. They don’t care about helping us.
“Every day they come here to ask, ‘Do you want to go to London?’. They don’t care about our safety, they don’t care if we die at sea.
“To be honest, if I was offered the chance to go to Rwanda I would go there now. It is like hell here. The conditions are so bad I would rather be anywhere else.”
The Government is now expected to appeal the Rwanda court ruling.
And PM Rishi Sunak says he will do “whatever is necessary” to disrupt criminal gangs operating small boat crossings.
The Rwanda plan has hit several roadblocks since it was announced in April last year.
Rwanda plan roadblocks
There was hope of a breakthrough in December when the High Court ruled the Rwanda policy was legal and did not breach the UN’s Refugee Convention.
But a legal challenge by the Asylum Aid charity was allowed to go ahead in January, paving the way for last week’s U-turn.
Muhamed Hasan, 23, said he too would be happy to move to Rwanda.
He fled the war in Sudan seven months ago and is still hoping to cross the Channel in a small boat.
But he is already low on money and fears his options are running out.
He said: “I know a bit about Rwanda and it sounds like a nice country where I would be safe.
“I would have no problem moving there if someone would pay for my flight. Anywhere is better than here.”
Afghan asylum seeker Jalal Muhammady, 22, was listening to music from a pair of Apple AirPods when he stopped to speak to HOAR.
He had travelled across Europe with his brother Jawad, 18, having fled Taliban rule in January, and was angry that French police had repeatedly blocked his path.
Jalal, who refused to have his picture taken, complained: “It’s so hard to get across the Channel right now.
“I’ve been here for one month and my brother and I want to take a truck or a boat but we have to wait for our chance.
“The police keep stopping us. They won’t give us a chance.
“They even took our boat and destroyed it.
“My elder brother runs a pizza shop in London.
“I have family in the UK so they won’t be able to deport me, I am 100 per cent certain of that.”
