Family blame French for migrant dying in Channel
THE Sudanese migrant who died in the Channel while trying to reach the UK has been named as Abdulfatah Hamdallah.
Originally from West Kordofan, a Sudanese state bordering the war-torn areas of Darfur and the Nuba Mountains, Hamdallah is understood to have fled his country in 2014, spending two years in Libya with his older brother before heading to France.
Last night, his family blamed the French authorities for his death, saying that his asylum application had been rejected, leaving him with no choice but to try to reach the UK by using a small boat.
Al-noor Mohammed, Hamdallah’s second cousin, joined him in Calais less than two months ago. He told The Guardian: “We grew up together in Sudan, and he only took this boat because of the French authorities who didn’t believe him.
“The last time I saw him was [on Tuesday] night. He was on a bicycle and told me that he may not be able to see me again. I didn’t believe him but he said, ‘I will see you at the other side’, which is the UK.”
Hamdallah’s brother, Al-fatih, also told the paper: “In France, they rejected his case so he decided to leave to the UK. He had been living in France for the past three years. He wanted to have a better life from the horror we used to live in, but what happened has happened.”
In a poignant Facebook post in December 2018, Hamdallah wrote: “When I die don’t be sad, it’s just time. Forget me as you forgot me while I’m alive.”
Yesterday it was announced that people smugglers were not thought to have orchestrated the failed crossing.
An investigation launched by French prosecutors has found that the boat carrying two Sudanese males was stolen from a nearby store and that they used shovels as oars. When one of their shovels punctured the inflatable craft, the pair fell in the water, with one managing to swim back to shore and raise the alarm.
It was thought that both the boys were 16, but yesterday, Philippe Sabatier, a French prosecutor, said the person who died was carrying an identity document that showed he was 28.
He also said of the pair: “No link has been established between them and any people-smuggling network in the sense that their attempted crossing corresponds to a personal initiative.”
The survivor, believed to be 16, is in the care of French social services.
Yesterday, Dan O’mahoney, the Home Office’s newly appointed clandestine Channel threat commander, was back in France to continue discussions with officials in Paris and Calais in a bid to tackle the migrant crossings crisis. A total of 164 people in 11 boats reached Britain on Wednesday – meaning 4,994 have arrived so far this year.
The latest crossings had taken the year’s total to 4,986 but then a vessel, thought to be carrying around eight people, was intercepted off the Kent coast yesterday.
Among Wednesday’s incidents was a boat carrying a group of refugees that got into difficulty in the Dover Strait shortly before 4pm. A rescue operation was called off after those on the boat were found safe on the shore.
On Tuesday, Altaib Mobarak, 43, from Sudan, was jailed for two years at Canterbury Crown Court after earlier admitting smuggling himself and nine others – including two children – across the Channel on board a rigid-hulled inflatable boat on July 7.
Elsewhere, the Government has called on councils to “take responsibility” as it urgently tries to find care for lone migrant children who have crossed the Channel. Officials have issued a plea to local authorities to take in unaccompanied migrant children as a surge in arrivals means Kent county council has reached its capacity.