Former Afghan soldier Haidary Hamedullah risked his life to cross the Channel hoping for a brighter future for his family in Britain, but just weeks later UK authorities expelled him back to France.<\/p>\n
“People like me have nowhere in the world to live in safety,” said the 28-year-old with chubby cheeks and jet-black hair, whose wife and two children — who turn eight and 10 this year — await in Pakistan.<\/p>\n
“Where should we go?”<\/p>\n
He is one of 1,087 people who the United Kingdom has forcibly returned to France, as part of a so-called “one in, one out” deal with France.<\/p>\n
Under the treaty, which came into force on August 6 last year and has been extended to the end of September, the UK can reject migrants who crossed the Channel illegally if they are deemed ineligible for asylum.<\/p>\n
In return, London accepts an equal number of migrants from France who have not taken the small boat route.<\/p>\n
By the end of June, London had in exchange for its forced removals admitted 1,117 other migrants who had requested entry in France.<\/p>\n
London and Paris say the accord helps crack down on people smuggling and limits the number of migrants attempting the often deadly crossing to England’s south coast.<\/p>\n
More than 41,000 migrants landed last year — the second-highest annual number since records began in 2018.<\/p>\n
But more than 20 charities in both countries have said the French-British deal inflicts “further harm on people who have already survived war, torture, persecution, violence, human trafficking, and a treacherous sea journey”.<\/p>\n
– ‘We ate, waited’ –<\/p>\n
Hamedullah, who spoke to AFP in Paris, said he was forced to flee Afghanistan to neighbouring Pakistan with his family after the Taliban seized power in August 2021.<\/p>\n
Departing alone from Pakistan, he tried a dozen times to cross into Europe via Greece then Bulgaria before succeeding.<\/p>\n
He was twice refused asylum in Austria after police stopped him there in June 2022.<\/p>\n
Once he had exhausted all means of appeal in February for his EU request for protection, he decided to try his luck outside the bloc — by crossing the Channel from France to the UK.<\/p>\n
He paid 1,500 euros ($1,700) to people smugglers in the French port city of Dunkirk to cross one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes to England on a dinghy.<\/p>\n
French police thwarted a first attempt.<\/p>\n
But in April, after eight hours of lying in wait on the beach then standing in the water, he and others boarded a small vessel unspotted, and headed across the sea.<\/p>\n
When they landed in the British town of Dover, officials sent women and children to hotels, but arrested men travelling alone like him.<\/p>\n
“Authorities who interviewed me told me that I ‘shouldn’t be here’,” he said.<\/p>\n
He ended up with around 350 other people at a detention centre near Heathrow airport outside London.<\/p>\n
“We were all depressed,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We ate, waited, doing nothing.” He said there was “only one television with one channel”.<\/p>\n
Hamedullah said he was assigned a lawyer, with whom he spoke for 30 minutes.<\/p>\n
But 51 days later, he was flown back to France, where he now fears he could soon be sent back to Austria.<\/p>\n
He said he hadn’t committed any crime.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I fought with your armies,” he said, referring to the Western armies that battled the Taliban.<\/p>\n
“I’m lost, completely lost.”<\/p>\n
– ‘Feel like an object’ –<\/p>\n
Yemeni brothers Yunes, 33, and Yassin, 24, say they fled Houthi rebels in 2023, after they overran their country’s capital eight years earlier.<\/p>\n
Yunes said the siblings, who both have a genetic eye condition and asked not to use their family name for fear of reprisals, spent 18 months in Egypt before travelling to Europe.<\/p>\n
He said they received death threats from drug dealers after they arrived in France, and decided to instead cross the Channel to be reunited with their sister, who has British nationality.<\/p>\n
At first, when their boat of some 60 passengers landed in April after 15 hours on the water, they were taken to a reception centre and given cake and orange juice.<\/p>\n
Then they were questioned.<\/p>\n
“The employee of the interior ministry told me I was a criminal and I came illegally,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I told her I tried to ask for a visa but I never succeeded, and I didn’t have any other choice.”<\/p>\n
Their sister’s best efforts to help them failed, he said, and after several weeks’ detention, they were sent back to France on a plane in late May.<\/p>\n
“I’m so sad,” he told AFP via telephone from a refugee shelter in central France, where they are now waiting to hear if they can stay.<\/p>\n
“I feel like an object.”<\/p>\n
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