This is the moment a migrant was caught trying to smuggle himself out of Britain in the back of a lorry, pleading with police: ‘I just want to go back to France!’
At the Port of Dover ferry port in Kent, the man was seen leaping out of a truck as it was being checked by police, then sprinting in the direction of the exit.
The footage features in the latest episode of Channel 4 documentary Dover 24/7: Britain’s Busiest Port, which follows the site’s police force and airs at 8 pm today.
Officers patrolling the port were filmed chasing after the migrant in their police van, then grabbing him and forcing him up against a concrete barrier near the taxi rank.
One officer says that ‘we’ve got a prisoner’ as others arrive to stop him escaping again, but the man tells them: ‘Why prisoner? I just want to go back to France!’
Officers Neil and Ian are seen working at the port in the video that was sent to the Daily Mail after they detained a guy who had neglected to show up for court in a different matter.
While heading to a local police station, they get an urgent call about the migrant, saying: ‘There’s a male making off down the buffer zone, away from Securitas.’
The officers perform a U-turn and head to the exit to catch the man, who is described to them as ‘Asian-looking, grey hooded jacket, black jogging bottoms’.
As they drive towards the taxi rank, the man is spotted, and one of them yells: ‘There he is, there he is, get ready.’ They pull up in the van and shout ‘Stop!’
The officers jump out of the van, and another says: ‘Stay where you are.’ One officer grabs hold of the man before a colleague helps and puts him up against a wall.
A third officer then also arrives to assist. One says: ‘We’ve got a prisoner. You get the van.’ They tell the man: ‘Stay there, we’ve got time.’
But the migrant says to them: ‘Why prisoner? I just want to go back to France!’
The officer then says: ‘But I don’t know what you’ve done. The last I know, you’re running away from someone. France says no.’
The police are told the man has just jumped out the back of a lorry after apparently being illegally stowed in the back – and there are another four people in the trailer.
One officer says: ‘Oh God! Did you… four more in the trailer.’
The migrant continues to plead: ‘I just want to go back to France!’
But the officer tells him: ‘I understand. You’re in this country, and there’s borders, and the French say you’re in here, you’re not allowed to France.’
They put him in a police van, and he is told: ‘OK, you’re in there for a minute, nothing silly.’
An officer says: ‘Obviously we’ve got a prisoner in our van, but we’ve got a shout from our colleagues that believe that there’s still some more in the lorry.
‘But the security team are dealing with that. We need to get to custody because this man is under arrest.’ They then ask him: ‘Are you okay in the back there?’
The officers then joke with each other that one of them had ‘said the Q word’ earlier on – suggesting it had been a quiet night, which is seen as bad luck on the shift.
The Port of Dover Police later confirmed that the man received a ‘community resolution’. This is an out-of-court order normally used for less serious crimes and incidents such as low-level public order, criminal damage, theft and minor assaults.
It comes after the Daily Mail reported how Labour had covertly repealed a restriction on small-boat migrants and other illegal immigrants acquiring British citizenship.
The remarkable reversal followed a judicial challenge alleging that the programme violated international refugee conventions and human rights laws.
This means that, three years after the Tories prevented them from doing so, unlawful migrants who are granted refuge here will finally be allowed to get British passports.
Under documents drawn up by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, they have to claim it was ‘outside their control’ that they arrived in the UK without permission.
Arrested for leaving, but not when they arrive because the police don’t know what he’s done, so we’ll just keep the bad ones; that makes complete sense. Why didn’t they just let him go? Now that would have made sense because he can then spread the word that the UK is not worth it.
This is unbelievable, and it makes sense that immigration is growing at an exponential rate when our own government refuse to let people leave when they truly want to.
This man was attempting to flee the freebies and escape his human rights, but we can’t let that happen because it might set a bad example.
If anything, this should be encouraged. Let the French deal with it. If only they were as adept at stopping them from coming in, we wouldn’t have a problem.
Let him go and make sure he takes some of his friends with him.
If he isn’t wanted for a crime, why can’t they stick him back in the lorry? The question is, are we breaching his human rights if he wants to go? It breaches them when we try to deport someone, so it must do if we’re stopping them from leaving, or is it just that our government needs their vote?
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 