Briton 'sorry' for bid to smuggle toddler out of French migrant c
Date
1/14/2016 11:49:55 PM
(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Former British soldier Rob Lawrie speaks during an interview with the Associated Press in Guiseley England Friday Jan. 8 2016. AP
Boulogne-sur-Mer: A former British soldier apologised to a French court for trying to smuggle an Afghan child out of a migrant camp as his deeply-divisive trial got under way Thursday.
"It was irrational I wasn't thinking clearly. I tried to make sure she could join her family" said an emotional Robert Lawrie speaking with the help of a French interpreter.
"What I did was stupid I was emotionally exhausted. I am sorry" he told the court.
Both the four-year-old girl Bahar Ahmadi and her father were present in court to support Lawrie.
The 49-year-old father of four is accused of trying to take Bahar out of the notorious camp in the French port town of Calais known as "The Jungle".
Lawrie had visited the sprawling camp several times to build shelters for its thousands of residents living there in squalor and desperate to reach Britain. At its peak the camp was home to some 6000 people although the number currently stands at around 4000.
During his visits Lawrie got to know the girl nicknamed Bru and her father asked him several times to take her across the Channel before he agreed.
"Who in their right mind would rather a child live in a tent on a chemical dump than allow me to take that one child to her family five miles (eight kilometres) from where I live?" Lawrie told AFP in November.
But French police stopped Lawrie with the girl after he passed British customs at the French port when sniffer dogs detected two Eritrean migrants who had sneaked into the back of his truck.
Lawrie says he did not know the two Eritreans were hidden in his truck.
He is being tried on charges of illegally aiding someone to enter a country.
If convicted he faces five years in prison and a 30000-euro ($33000) fine.
- 'A very stupid decision' -
Lawrie told the court he did not have contact with any of the girl's family in Britain and had only been given an address to drop her off.
Asked about the conditions of her transport he said he was not paid to take the girl to Britain.
"It was a very stupid decision" he told the court.
An online petition calling for the case against Lawrie to be dropped has attracted 120000 signatures in France and 50000 signatures in Britain.
Although migrants have been gathering around Calais for years The Jungle grew rapidly in early 2015 as the migration crisis took hold.
Most of its inhabitants are from war zones such as Syria Afghanistan and Iraq or have fled persecution and poverty in African countries such as Sudan and Eritrea.
Numbers peaked at around 6000 in the summer but have fluctuated as many pay mafia groups to smuggle them aboard lorries crossing the Channel by ferry.
Efforts by the migrants to reach Britain have grown increasingly desperate with hundreds storming the Eurotunnel site on several occasions and prompting a massive increase in security.
At least 18 people have died since last June trying to get across the Channel.
AFP