Migrant Reveals Daughter’s Trauma After Failed Attempts To Cross English Channel

A father seeking asylum in Europe has described how brutal conditions in Calais have traumatised his daughter as he re-lived their failed bids to cross the English Channel in a small dinghy.

Ahmad, his wife and his two children, Maryam, seven, and Benjamin, two, have attempted the perilous journey across the English Channel – one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes – three times.

They were stopped on the beach by police during their first attempt, and made it 1km offshore the second time before waves started to sink their boat and they were forced to swim back.

On a third occasion, just before Christmas, they travelled about 10km (6.2 miles) in a fishing boat before armed police intercepted them.

The family were taken to hospital in Calais after their ordeal.

Ahmad, 36, said he will not try to get to England by boat again because it is too dangerous and distressing for his daughter, who is now being seen twice a week by a psychologist.

A few months ago the little girl was happy and playing “all the time” but now she is scared and cries about having no friends or school, he said.

Speaking through a translator, he said: “Now my daughter is not normal, not good.

“She’s (in a) very bad situation, she feels not good at all and the doctor told me we need to take good care of her because she don’t feel good because she’s lonely, she doesn’t have any friends, no school, no child to play with or have the same language to talk.”

Ahmad spoke outside temporary accommodation the family has been placed in after a doctor said they needed shelter.

But within a few days, their time will be up and Ahmad said the family is very “frightened” about having to return to hiding in the woods in tents.

He added: “We have no home, but there is no other choice – we are forced to go back.”