Refugees Daily - Internal Global Press Review

A Sudanese migrant who walked through the Channel Tunnel is now free to start a new life in Britain after being released by a judge.

Abdul Rahman Haroun was arrested after he walked 31 miles from France to Folkestone in Kent in August last year at the height of the clashes in Calais as migrants attempted to enter the UK.

Haroun, 40, was charged with obstructing an engine or carriage on a railway line, punishable by up to two years in prison under legislation from the Victorian era.

Before the hearing at Canterbury crown court yesterday he changed his plea to guilty. He was given a ninemonth sentence but will not spend any more time in jail because of the months he has already served on remand. He was granted asylum last December, meaning that he is now free to build his life in Britain.

During proceedings Philip Bennetts, QC, for the prosecution, said Haroun jumped over the Channel Tunnel's perimeter fence by himself before "walking sometimes on the right and sometimes on the left" inside the tunnel. Haroun told the court how he held on to the wall whenever a train came past.

An earlier hearing was told that Haroun had travelled for a month from his home country to Egypt and then Libya, before crossing the Mediterranean to Italy. He then made his way to France and Calais.

In an interview with the Home Office, Haroun described how he had been persecuted by the Janjaweed militia in Sudan, forcing him to flee his home in 2004.

He ended up in a camp at the Kari-Yari dam on the Sudan-Chad border where he was said to have spent many years living in difficult circumstances.

After reaching France, Haroun spent up to seven days in Calais before walking through the tunnel.

Speaking through an interpreter, he told police after his arrest: "I came here for protection and to be safe."

Richard Thomas, for the defence, said in mitigation: "This is not a case where there was a mass influx, or causing damage or assaulting tunnel staff. This is a case where the defendant was recognised in fact to be a refugee."

Sentencing, Judge Adele Williams acknowledged Haroun had been "in a state of desperation", but added: "You not only put your own life in danger but, in my judgment, you put the lives and safety of others in danger.

"You caused enormous inconvenience to a large number of people. It caused significant economic loss.

"Let there be no mistake, disrupting the operation of the Channel Tunnel in this way is a very serious offence which will almost always result in an immediate sentence of imprisonment."