“I WONDERED HOW HE WOULD BE REMEMBERED IF HE DIED TRYING TO REACH THE SHORES OF ENGLAND TONIGHT”
If you hate the migrants in Calais, you hate yourself
Over the centuries, we offered succour and shelter to the persecuted. Now it’s Fortress Britain
By Nick Cohen
The Observer
August 2, 2015
I looked at Salah Mohammed Ali and wondered how he would be remembered if he died trying to reach the shores of England tonight. It was not a fanciful speculation.
Since 1 June, 10 refugees have died on the roads around Calais, at the port or inside the Channel tunnel. Their number included an Eritrean woman hit by a car last week on Calais’s urban motorway. A few days before, a Sudanese man had tried to jump on to the Eurostar. He misjudged the distance and the train smashed his head open. Worst of all was Samir, an Eritrean baby, who lived and died within the space of an hour. Her young mother fell from a truck heading to Dover. The fall triggered a premature birth and that was Samir’s life over before it had begun.