Lost in France ...

Lost in France: the Iraqis seeking a new life in Britain

Angelique Chrisafis in Cherbourg
Monday October 1, 2007
The Guardian

In a makeshift tent on wasteland behind a French lycée, a former peshmerga soldier from Iraq's Kurdistan sat huddled in a sleeping bag, cleaning his ears with a cotton bud.
Ali, 23, insisted on maintaining personal hygiene amid the detritus of food wrappers, old garden furniture and shopping trolleys dotted around the camp of Iraqis with no toilets or running water. "I'm going to get out of here if it's the last thing I do," he muttered.

Two months ago, Ali paid $10,000 (£5,000) to people traffickers to be smuggled out of northern Iraq, through Turkey, to the "great country" of England. He had learnt basic English from dealings with US troops in Kurdistan. But after 40 "terrible" days, instead of being deposited in Britain, he was dumped in Cherbourg, the windswept Normandy port famous for its umbrellas and ferries to Poole and Portsmouth.

For the past few weeks, Ali, like the Iraqis from Kurdistan or Baghdad sleeping rough alongside him, has repeatedly attempted to smuggle himself on to freight lorries making the ferry crossing to Britain. The men break into the port at night while drivers are asleep, and hide in the underbelly of lorries, squeezed up against axles. Ali has been caught under trucks by French police several times, and was once briefly held in a detention centre, but he is determined to keep trying. Some of his friends have made it as far as Poole before being turned back.

The build-up of Iraqis sleeping rough in Cherbourg is now alarming local politicians. The northern French port has become a no man's land of Iraqis desperately trying to get to England to claim asylum. Known as the "ghosts of Cherbourg", the young Iraqis have only one goal: Britain. They know they have one chance at claiming asylum in Europe and must pick their country carefully. France, they believe, is a miserable place for them. "But England is a good country," said Ali. "It gives you a job, gives you a passport, gives you a house."

Because Iraq is at war, the Iraqis cannot be forcibly deported. Caught by French police at the ferry terminal, they end up being released and head straight back to Cherbourg. Caught at a British ferry terminal, they are escorted back to their port of departure - Cherbourg, where the cycle restarts.

In the leftwing town, people are proud of France's anti-war stance and see the fleeing Iraqis as victims. But Bernard Cazeneuve, Cherbourg's Socialist mayor, recently spoke out in the French National Assembly demanding the government take responsibility for the "extreme suffering" of the migrants risking their lives. In July, one Iraqi was injured by a bullet as a driver fired a gun, trying to stop stowaways. This week the government sent riot police to guard the terminal. On Tuesday, the courts will rule whether the camp can be evicted .

At the port this week, workers were mending patches of the perimeter fence that had been forced by would-be stowaways. One lorry driver, who had worked the Cherbourg-England route for 30 years, said: "I secure my truck with padlocks. Drivers often have no idea if someone has cut into their tarpaulin or hidden below the lorry. But if you're caught with someone stowed away, you're treated like a people trafficker." Some said drivers carried baseball bats to protect themselves from stowaways.

Serge Henry, of the port authority, said: "At the worst stage, 100 to 150 people would try and get into the port each night. It has improved since the riot police arrived, but there's a risk that if they leave, it will get worse."

Marie-Thérèse Chauvin, from Brittany Ferries, said the company had to pay fines for every illegal immigrant caught and meet costs for police to escort them back to Cherbourg. "We used to see the same people night after night, trying again."

At the camp, around 40 people sat in tents, biding their time. Most chance Cherbourg's port on their own initiative. But people traffickers have offered to help newcomers for €500 to €600 (£350-£420).

Pascal Besuelle, of the local Collective against Racism, said: "These people must be allowed to apply for British asylum from here and have their cases dealt with."