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| Abdulfatah Hamdallah, whose body was found on Sangatte beach, near Calais. |
Drowned Sudanese refugee identified as Abdulfatah Hamdallah
Man known as Wajdi believed to have made Channel crossing after asylum refused in France
Thu 20 Aug 2020 18.26 BST
The Sudanese refugee who drowned while trying to cross the Channel using an inflatable dinghy with shovels for oars has been identified by multiple sources as Abdulfatah Hamdallah.
Hamdallah, who was also known as Wajdi, is understood to have had his claim for asylum in France refused recently, and decided to risk the dangerous journey across the strait of Dover for a better life than the “horror” he used to live in, said sources including family members.
Before setting off on the journey, he is said to have told a cousin in Calais that he might not see him again.
Family members have told the Guardian Hamdallah was 22, although documents found on his body give a 1992 date of birth, making him 28. Philippe Sabatier, the deputy public prosecutor for Boulogne-sur-Mer, confirmed the name Abdulfatah Hamdallah appeared on those documents. On Wednesday a French minister had put his age at 16.
Originally from West Kordofan, a Sudanese state bordering the war-torn areas of Darfur and the Nuba Mountains, Hamdallah is understood to have fled his country in 2014. Relatives said he spent two years in Libya with his older brother before heading to France via Italy.
His body was found on Sangatte beach, on the northern coast of France, on Wednesday morning. He had set off from Calais in the middle of the night with a friend, who made it back to shore and was taken to hospital to be treated for hypothermia.
The death came as tensions rise over the British government’s approach to migrant boat crossings. A French MP blamed the tragedy on the UK’s policy of insisting asylum claims be made on British soil.
Hamdallah’s second cousin, Al-Noor Mohammed, joined him in Calais less than two months ago. He said: “We grew up together in Sudan, and he only took this boat because of the French authorities who didn’t believe him.
“The last time I saw him was [on Tuesday] night. He was on a bicycle and told me that he may not be able to see me again. I didn’t believe him, but he said: ‘I will see you at the other side,’ which is the UK.”
Hamdallah’s older brother, Al-Fatih Hamdallah, remains in Libya. Speaking to the Guardian from Tripoli, Al-Fatih said the pair worked as car washers in the capital but his younger brother left three years ago to travel to Italy and later France.
“When I went to Sudan to see my family, he left Libya without telling me that he was going to cross the sea to Europe,” Al-Fatih said. “I was speaking to him just three days ago on the phone but he never told me that he would try to cross the sea again.”
Al-Fatih added: “In France, they rejected his case so he decided to leave to the UK. He had been living in France for the last three years. He wanted to have a better life from the horror we used to live in, but what happened has happened.”
Abdulfatah dropped out of school in a village near En Nahud town in West Kordofan in 2014 to go work in Libya with his brothers. “He just thought it was meaningless to study: even if he finished his studies, there would be nothing he can do in Sudan, that’s why he left Sudan,” Al-Fatih said.
“We are four siblings working now in Libya to send some money to our children back home. We had to leave because the situation in Sudan is so tough ... We will ask Al-Noor to let him be buried in the Islamic way in France because sending him back to Sudan might take up to three months.”
An asylum seeker in Calais, Akram Eissa, said he had lunch with Abdulfatah a day before his departure. “We had rice that we were offered by charities, and in the morning I was told that he took a boat towards the UK, before being drowned.”
Abdulfatah’s last words on his Facebook account were written in Arabic in June, and the literal translation is “on the palm of fate we walk, and don’t know what’s written”.
On Wednesday and Thursday hundreds of people left messages of condolence under the post.
The UK government has been criticised by campaigners and opposition politicians for a lack of compassion and competence in managing small-boat crossings, ignoring calls from humanitarian experts to bolster safe and legal routes to the UK for those seeking asylum. Instead, ministers have sought to bring in the military to make the route “unviable”, which has involved the air force launching large aircraft over the waters.
On Wednesday, Pierre-Henri Dumont, an MP for the Calais region for Les Républicains, a centre-right party, said: “What we all feared, happened this night. How many more tragedies must there be for the British to find an ounce of humanity? The impossibility of lodging an asylum request in Great Britain without being physically there is leading to these tragedies.”
He added: “British negligence does not exonerate the French government from its own responsibility.”
Home Office sources rejected the claim that UK policy was to blame for Abdulfatah’s death and insisted the UK did more than other EU member states to resettle refugees.
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