Desperate asylum seeker 'shot in knee trying to board dinghy without paying'

25 August 2023 , 20:05

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Migrants crossing English Channel (Image: Getty Images)

Ruthless smugglers shot a desperate refugee through the kneecap and foot for trying to board a dinghy without paying, it is claimed.

A 27-year-old man from Sudan is in hospital recovering after Sunday’s attack. One refugee said: “It was a message so nobody else tries it.” Hana Anane, founder of charity No Border Medics, was in the camp when she heard “eight or nine” gunshots. She said: “I was sitting here and I heard eight or nine shots,” she told the Mirror.

“I think it happened over by the water fountain. Five guys then ran over carrying him. I don’t know who did it but whoever it was, they did not want to kill him. It was to show who was boss, I think. He’s still in hospital. The knee is not the problem but the bullet did go straight through his leg. But his big toe was completely smashed.”

Since she set it up in September, Hana’s charity provides medical care for refugees at the Dunkirk camp six days a week. Children regularly get the flu, she said, and scabies is rife. The nurse revealed many adults need wound care after police violence or from falling while running from officers.

Hana Anane (Philip Coburn /Daily Mirror)

“Everybody here has trauma and PTSD,” she said. Hana, from Germany, said the UK’s reputation in Europe for its treatment of refugees is at rock bottom. These ideas they’re coming up with – the boat, Rwanda. They need to get serious. Sometimes governments are against charities doing work like we do as they think it will encourage people to make the journeys.

Baby boy has spent his life in hospital as doctors are 'scared' to discharge him

"They are fleeing war and persecution like we can never imagine - they are making these journeys no matter what. There needs to be a better system in place.”

* To donate, visit noborder medics.org

Matthew Young