You panicked you couldn’t breathe... it was a squash

SABIR Zazai, 44, fled the Taliban in Afghanistan and finally found asylum in Britain after being smuggled on the back of a lorry to Dover. Today, he is chief executive of the Scottish Refugee Council and this year received an honorary doctorate from Glasgow University. He tells his story here.

“After a journey of many long months, fleeing the Taliban in my home town of Kabul, Afghanistan, smugglers using every means of transport to move me undercover, I was finally smuggled to Dover in the back of a long haul truck.

“I was so disoriented by then, I have no idea where we set out from.

“It was women and children with me mainly, and young men like me, in their 20s.

“There was machinery with us that could have toppled on us at any time, and I recall the stink of engine oil as well as the smell of those crammed in all around me.

“It was ink black and we were so squashed our legs were tucked up and there was no room to stand.

“The children were sobbing. There was no food, no water, no dignity. You could only go to the toilet where you sat and at times, you panicked you couldn’t breathe.

“My main memory of that final journey is the terror I felt. Each moment I felt my life was ending.

“We were in there for at least three hours, until in desperation someone tried to peel back the tarpaulin and the driver and security swung the door open.

“All hell let loose then, swearing and shouting, and the police dogs my first sight in Britain was a police dog. I still have a phobia of them.

“Hearing the news from Essex has brought it all back. Twenty years on and human beings, fleeing conflict and poverty, are still facing this dangerous journey – and then a tough asylum system in the UK.

“We need to look at their desperation. Nobody wants to do this, to leave their home. I didn’t want to – I was fleeing death.

“Shutting our borders only helps the smugglers and puts lives at risk.

“Thirty-nine people dying on UK soil – this should be a national day of mourning.”

SMUGGLED Sabir with dad Mohamed after receiving his honorary doctorate