Afghan boy suffocated in lorry weeks before landmark UK asylum ruling

A 15-year-old Afghan boy suffocated in a lorry trying to reach the UK just weeks before a landmark immigration ruling that would have granted him immediate leave to legally enter the UK.

On Wednesday, a judge at the UK immigration tribunal ruled that four young men living at a tented refugee camp in Calais must be allowed to enter the country immediately to live with their family members while their asylum claims are processed.

A fifth boy, named only as Masud, who would have been part of the case, had hoped to live with his sister in the UK after fleeing the restive Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

According to lawyers involved in the case, he had a legitimate claim to asylum because of his family connections to Britain.

But instead of waiting for the trial, Masud attempted to travel from France to the UK just before New Year's Eve and died in the back of a lorry. 

“He couldn’t stand the cold and the mud any longer, so he tried to get on a lorry and suffocated," Mitch Mitchell, an activist with London2Calais, a group that has helped identify young asylum seekers trapped in the squalid camps in Calais, told Middle East Eye.

“It’s tragic because he would have got in. His was one of the cases the lawyers were dealing with - if only he had waited a few more days."

Late on Wednesday, just hours after the ruling, the four other young men, all from Syria, were brought to the UK.

“I imagine they are elated,” Mitchell said.

Wednesday's ruling could pave the way for more unaccompanied minors with relatives in the UK to have their claims heard in the country, immigration experts said.

“This ruling has shone a welcome light on the plight of refugees seeking protection in Europe who are desperately trying to reach their relatives,” said Judith Dennis, policy manager at the Refugee Council.

“European governments must work together to ensure families are reunited safely and speedily.”

News of the ruling has spread quickly through the camps in Calais and nearby Dunkirk, where thousands of asylum seekers live in tents for months in the hope of chancing the risky crossing to the UK.

“People [in the camps] are mostly happy for the young ones,” Mitchell said, although "the general mood is low".

“There are stories of beating both by local fascist gangs and the riot police.”

In the middle of a cold snap, with temperatures overnight falling below freezing, activists in Calais are trying to identify more unaccompanied minors who could now be allowed safe passage into the UK to join family members.

“We are hoping the ruling will help the children, at least,” he said.