http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3182533/Migrant-girl-15-sneaks-past-French-police-Calais-make-break-UK-bound-train.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490
'It's easy to get past the gendarmes, see you in England': How a
migrant girl, 15, sneaked past French police to make a break for a
UK-bound train in crisis-hit Calais
Mail on Sunday met Zewdi and friend Semlet, from Eritrea, in French village
Pair had paid smugglers to cross Sudan, Libya and Italy to make it this far
Were making 12th attempt to jump on to a moving UK-bound freight train
Zewdi's dream is 'to go to the Tower of London and I love English books'
By Ian Gallagher, Chief Reporter For The Mail On Sunday
Published: 17:22 EST, 1 August 2015 | Updated: 02:15 EST, 2 August 2015
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>From their hiding place in a field of head-high corn they emerge one
by one, half-smirking like guilty schoolchildren.
It is Friday evening near the pretty French village of Frethun and
this group of young migrants – among them a 15-year-old Eritrean girl
called Zewdi who is carrying her favourite Agatha Christie novel in a
small backpack – are tantalisingly close to the Eurotunnel terminal.
Ten minutes earlier they were chased away by two middle-aged gendarmes
barking: ‘Allez! Allez!’
Right now, though, the officers are engaged in a cat-and-mouse game
with 20 Sudanese youths a few hundred yards down the road.
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Zewdi, aged 15, (left) and her friend Semlet prepare for their 12th
bid to get into Britain by jumping on a freight train heading through
the Eurotunnel
With the police distracted, Zewdi and her friends seize their chance.
Sprinting from the cornfield past the slow river that eases towards
the village, the migrants cross a country road beside the train track.
Next, they negotiate the flimsy fence with practised ease, resembling
a well-drilled gymnastics team as they help each other over the top in
a series of flowing movements.
A siren wails but the weary-looking gendarmes are too late, the
migrants are now trackside, inside the terminal, and beyond their
grasp; someone else’s problem now. Meanwhile back down the road the
Sudanese teenagers that the officers thought they’d dealt with are
scrambling under the fence.
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Under or over, the migrants always seem to get across in the end. And
so the charade goes on, as it did yesterday and as it doubtless will
tomorrow and beyond.
There are just four gendarmes in two cars patrolling this half-mile
stretch – arguably the Eurotunnel complex’s weakest point – and we
witnessed how they were thwarted at every turn by the migrants, more
than 200 in all.
Exasperated, and perhaps a little humiliated, the gendarmes turned on
Mail on Sunday photographer Steve Burton and asked him to stop taking
pictures. He refused. Then they tried unsuccessfully to order him to
delete his photos.
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Zewdi (circled) and fellow migrants head for a gap in the fence at the
Eurotunnel complex. There are just four gendarmes in two cars
patrolling this half-mile stretch
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A group of migrants sprint towards a train as they near the Eurotunnel
site at Coquelles in Calais
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The migrants prepare to board a freight train in an attempt to get to
the UK. This was a small incursion but on Monday there was a more
carefully orchestrated one with much larger groups.
Calais migrants, including children, undaunted by police
It was during this exchange that another group of migrants hopped
neatly over the fence. To add to the sense of pantomime, the gendarmes
had their backs to them and didn’t even notice.
A short while later we spotted Zewdi running along the track. ‘Wish me
luck,’ she beamed. ‘See you in England!’
We met Zewdi and her 17-year-old friend Semlet an hour earlier after
they left The Jungle, the migrants’ ramshackle camp near Calais, and
trooped across the town, as they do every night.
Three months ago they joined the exodus from their homeland where they
saw friends used as sexual slaves by the military, relatives tortured
and killed and children forced into bonded labour.
After leaving home Zewdi and Semlet crossed Sudan where they paid a
people trafficker $1,500 to smuggle them across the border into Libya.
Having handed over a further $2,000 to another trafficker, they then
endured a perilous boat journey across the Mediterranean to Italy.
If Zewdi and her friends make it to Britain they stand a good chance
remaining there – but first they must successfully jump on to a moving
UK-bound freight train. ‘We have tried 11 times – this will be our
12th,’ Zewdi told us. ‘It’s easy to get past the gendarmes, there are
so few of them and so many of us and we are much fitter.
POLICE HOT ON THE TAILS OF FENCE JUMPERS? NO! THEY'RE AFTER OUR PHOTOGRAPHER
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Gendarmes take no action as migrants climb the Eurotunnel fence in
Calais - but they certainly did take notice of the Mail on Sunday's
photographer
If the consequences weren’t so serious, it would be a French farce
worthy of the bungling Inspector Clouseau.
Two gendarmes sit impotently in their squad car as migrants, in full
sight, climb the low, flimsy fence into the Eurotunnel complex.
To add to the sham, the officers DID spring into action moments after
this picture was taken – not to stop the trespassers but to demand our
photographer put his camera away and delete the evidence of their
inaction. Our man naturally refused.
Once they are over the fence, unprotected by barbed wire, the migrants
are no longer the gendarmes’ problem, but Eurotunnel’s.
Migrants break through fences at Eurotunnel entrance in Calais
‘Getting over the fence is easy too. Most of the others [migrants] try
from over there,’ she said, pointing towards a distant spot. But there
are too many TV cameras and police there now so we come here. It is a
perfect spot.
'When we get on the track we find somewhere to hide, maybe underneath
a freight train, until it gets dark. I sit with my arms pulled around
my legs and put my head down so my face is hidden.
‘We have to wait until the train begins to move before we try to get
on. Once it pulls away it won’t stop, not for anything. So if we can
get on we’re OK.’
First, though, they have to weave their way past Eurotunnel security
guards bearing torches. ‘They are more determined than the gendarmes,’
said Zewdi.
She came closest on Wednesday night – ‘my fingertips were a few
centimetres from the side of the train’ – but one of the guards
grabbed her and led her off the site.
‘They are firm but they never hurt us,’ she said. ‘I just need a bit
of luck, I’m sure it will come. Normally between 20 or 30 make it
across to England every night, sometimes more.’
NO WONDER THEY ALL WANT TO COME! GENEROUS PROVISIONS BRITAIN MAKES FOR
ASYLUM SEEKERS ARE ALL OVER GOVERNMENT WEBSITE
By Nick Craven
If anyone wondered why the Calais migrants are so desperate to reach
Britain, the Government’s own website may provide the answer.
The gov.uk internet pages spell out exactly what asylum seekers can
expect upon arrival in Britain, from State cash handouts of £36.95 per
person each week to free accommodation, education and healthcare.
Using official figures for the average annual sums spent per head on
healthcare, education and rent in the UK, the total outlay including
cash support for a family of two adults and two children is about
£35,300 a year.
P.S. Guess how France treats ITS migrants?
By contrast, the French government website, service-public.fr is far
less user-friendly.
And, although asylum seekers are in theory entitled to accommodation,
there is a long waiting list as the number of people living rough in
The Jungle proves.
Human Rights Watch say 15,000 asylum seekers are waiting for a place
in a reception centre in France.
It is not without risk. Since June ten migrants have died trying to
cross the Channel. It is unclear exactly how many have been injured.
Two Sudanese migrants were hit by high-speed trains on Monday and are
still recovering in hospital.
Others have been treated for broken limbs, mainly through falling
while trying to jump on trains. Many more have been scarred by barbed
wire. Earlier this month a woman lost her baby after her water broke
prematurely when she tried to climb on to a train.
But this does not deter Zewdi, whose brother is already in London. ‘My
father was killed in the war with Ethiopia and my mother wanted a
better life for us, somewhere I can continue my studies without being
surrounded by fear.’
England was the natural choice. ‘Yes, your country is rich but it’s
also because we learn English in school, about English history; your
kings and queens. I want to go to the Tower of London and I love
English books.’ She shows off her copy of Agatha Christie’s At
Bertram’s Hotel.
Though Zewdi was wearing a red sweatshirt, most of the migrants put on
dark clothes for the nightly incursion attempts. Some hide their faces
with scarves and handkerchiefs. Others wear gardening gloves in case
they encounter razor wire.
Under a bridge, half a mile from where Zewdi and her friends crossed
the fence, a group of older Eritreans sat in a hunched group, waiting.
‘We don’t move until after midnight,’ said one.
Then, pointing to the bandage around his left ankle he said: ‘I got on
a train last week but lost my grip on the side and fell off. It wasn’t
going too fast but I fell awkwardly. I’ve been trying for two months.’
Throughout the evening we saw only small groups of migrants – between
five and 20 – breaking into the tunnel complex. On Monday however the
incursion was carefully orchestrated, with much larger groups. Some
migrants claimed it was planned in The Jungle by a Sudanese man
nicknamed The General.
‘There were men with mobile phones, advance lookouts,’ said an
Eritrean man. ‘No one moved from their positions until they rang back
to say it was clear.
'All this, they say, was planned by The General, who is supposed to
have military training, in his tent with paper and maps.’
Zewdi and her friends said they acted alone, however.
At 10.30pm we spotted them again, from a road bridge. Her red
sweatshirt was just visible in the distance before she hid under a
stationary freight carriage.
A few minutes later we saw her for the last time, running diagonally
across the tracks, as she tried once more to find her way to England.
Received on Tue Aug 04 2015 - 08:50:53 EDT