An Afghan chef working in London made a dash for the Calais refugee camp on Tuesday when he heard his teenage cousin had turned up on the site after six months.
In an emotional reunion, Amruddin Jan, 20, who works in a restaurant in Piccadilly Circus, told how he drove over as soon as heard his 14-year-old cousin, Jamshid, was in the camp.
Jamshid had fled Kabul 18 months ago “but he disappeared and we didn’t know where he was,” said Jan, who granted permission to interview and photograph his teenage relative.
“I spent last night with him in the tent here in the Jungle to make him happy. It was good, me and him, because I can look after him now,” he said.
He said his young cousin had cried and cried and told him how he feared he would be attacked by older men of “3o to 35” on the site.
“This is no place for a child. It was really hard for him. There are a lot of dangerous people here. He told me an older man asked him to come and stay in his tent and he told him, ‘How could I do that, I don’t know you.’ I was very worried for him,” said Jan.
“I am shocked that that can happen here. I told him I would take care of him and feed him and send him to school and that he should not worry,” he added.
Jan came to the UK two years ago and now has indefinite leave to remain in the country. “He is now my responsibility,” he said.
Hugging each other, the quietly spoken and withdrawn Jamshid said he was very happy to meet his cousin and end his ordeal.
“I can see a life. My life shouldn’t be like this. In this place there are always problems. Problems with toilets, with different kinds of people. Sometimes you can’t come out of your tent. I was scared,” said Jamshid. “It’s not safe here.”
Jan found out by chance that Jamshid had made it to the camp from another cousin who showed up there and was on Facebook on Sunday.
The other cousin has already been relocated, leaving Jamshid, an unaccompanied minor, to be looked after by another minor.
But the joy of meeting each other was tinged with sadness that Jan had to return to London.
“I came on Monday because it was my first day off. But I have to leave again this afternoon, because I have to work tomorrow. I would take him in the car if he had papers but he hasn’t and there is no one here to tell us how long we will have to wait. We have no information.”
Jamshid could not be reassured that he would ever get out of the camp, even though he has the colour-coded bracelet to show he has been accepted by the first Home Office filter that he is underage, and therefore eligible to go to the UK under the Dublin regulation.
“I feel really sad that [Jan] is going back to London,” he said.
