London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

‘I come, or I die’: fatalistic refugees say Channel crossing their only option

‘I come, or I die’: fatalistic refugees say Channel crossing their only option

Young people who have made the dangerous journey tell why they have risked all to reach the UK

In the early hours of Thursday morning, a group of newly arrived refugees huddled together on the coast of Dover. The smugglers had not halted their trade in moving people across the Channel and, just hours after 27 people died on the perilous journey, they were back at work.

There is little evidence that the latest loss of life will deter others from making the dangerous journey. After the tragic drowning of the Kurdish family who tried to cross the Channel in October last year, two asylum seekers who survived told the Guardian that, despite being deeply traumatised, they continued trying to cross and not long after made it to the UK.

One of the two, Ali, said: “The journey took seven to eight hours and my legs did not stop shaking for the entire journey.”

Several asylum seekers who have crossed in recent weeks and months said they were fully aware of the dangers but felt they had no choice.

Previously, fewer refugees crossed from northern France in small boats because it was easier to hide in lorries. But the recent increase in security at lorry transit points in northern France has added to the numbers trying to get to the UK by sea.

Ali, 28, who fled Iran because he faced persecution for his Bahá’í faith and crossed the Channel six months ago, said: “I didn’t have any other way to do it while my life was in danger.”

He is a fluent English speaker and said he had read many articles in the UK media about drownings in the Channel. He knew the Kurdish family who drowned, as he had spent time in northern France with them. He said he was fearful of getting into the boat, but the alternative was being sent back to Iran.

“We are asylum seekers, not economic migrants. If it was safe for me in my country I would apply for a job-seeker visa and come to the UK that way, and I would not try this dangerous journey,” he said.


A 23-year-old seamstress from Afghanistan, who fled forced marriage before the Taliban took control, escaping through Herat into Iran and then to Turkey, said a relative paid smugglers to bring her through Europe to northern France, where she boarded a small boat to the UK. She said: “My relative paid the smugglers a lot of money to bring me through Europe and to put me into a small boat. Because they paid a lot the smugglers treated me good. I was one of the lucky ones. If you have money it is easier.”

She said she was afraid of crossing in the small boat but was also fearful of remaining in northern France. “I am glad I have survived until now. In Afghanistan I was not free. In the UK I am waiting but I am free,” she said.

Ari, from Syria, crossed the Channel not once, but twice. He was removed to another European country under the Dublin rules, where one EU country can request permission from another to send an asylum seeker back there. Since Brexit, the UK is no longer part of this scheme.

He said there was a fatalism among desperate refugees crossing the Channel. “Either I come, or I die,’ I heard this phrase every day in Calais,” he said. “When I came to Britain I felt a strange relief inside me because I knew that this journey would end either in drowning and death, or arriving in Britain. In both cases the misery would end.”

Saam, 23, fled Iran after converting to Christianity and protesting against his government. He said the smuggler he spoke to promised that he would reach the UK by car, travelling on a ferry. He was put into a car by the smugglers, but then told to get out at the beach and forced into a dinghy at gunpoint.

He said: “The smuggler said: ‘Get in or I’ll shoot you’. I thought about my mum. She is still in Iran and she is so worried for my life. I thought that for her sake, I have to get into the boat and take this risk to try to save my life. I said to myself ‘maybe I won’t arrive, but I have to try’.”

Police patrolling the beach in northern France pass by the wreckage of a inflatable boat used in an attempt to cross the Channel.


Saam arrived in the UK but is still traumatised. “I am very afraid here. I have so much stress. I have to sleep with the light on because I am frightened,” he said. “If I was safe in Iran it would be crazy to come to a different country with different culture and different laws. I am a Christian but I will be alone here at Christmas in my room. I can only talk to the walls and the spiders.”

Mohammad, 21, from Afghanistan, came to the UK in a lorry at the age of 15. He now has leave to remain in the UK and lives on the south coast, where he has seen some of the refugees arriving recently in small boats. “I understand why they are coming,” he said.

Two of his younger brothers, aged 14 and 16, arrived in the UK just weeks ago after crossing the Channel on a small boat, escaping Afghanistan before the Taliban took control. He was overjoyed they had survived, as he had not known if they were dead or alive. “I was so excited when I spoke to them and they told me they had made it to the UK,” he said. “It was a really good moment.”

They were not able to spend much time together before his brothers were moved to the north-west of England by the Home Office. “I have only been able to visit them once. I took them into the town and bought them some clothes and things they needed.”

He said the Home Office is disputing his brothers’ ages, saying the 14-year-old is 25 and the 16-year-old is 23. When he himself claimed asylum, the ages of his brothers at the time was part of his evidence.

“My country is very rich. There are many things in Afghanistan. My wish is that one day my country will be safe and free with no fighting and no killing. When that day comes I promise you, UK, I will leave from here.”

“Everybody who gets into a small boat knows it is not safe. If there is a problem, you are going to die and the end of the day will be the end of your life.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×