Their lawyer, Orsane Broisin, explains:
“From that time forward, once the finger prints are on the record, France will be considering their request to seek asylum in the UK.”
During this last week these two young interpreters, like everyone else living in the Calais camp, have had to survive being evicted and/or burned out of their homes.
One of the men, Abdullah (not his real name) speaking this morning from Calais, explained:
“The police started to evict people last Monday (29th February). The photo we have just sent you (attached) of us two was taken last Tuesday (1st March). We could not send it before because we have not had access to any internet and we have been burned out twice from our homes in the last week.”
His interpreter companion, Said (not his real name) added:
“Now, people are leaving their sheds, frightened that they will be burned. We have slept in empty sheds for some nights but now we are on the South side. I am staying with a family and Abdullah is with two other Afghan men in a caravan.”
One of the UK volunteers in touch with RAPAR, Megan Howell, describes the processes of eviction and follow up burnings as having become ‘normalised now’. For her:
“Europe has lost any right it may once have had to bask in the glory of its reputation as the world’s custodian of human rights, freedom and democracy. The signatures of European States on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees may as well be deleted for all they’re worth, which in Calais is absolutely nothing.”
* A Bonfire of the Vanities is a burning of objects condemned by authorities as occasions of sin.
ENDS
For further information contact Dr Rhetta Moran on 07776264646/[email protected]