A former British soldier received a warning and a suspended 1,000 euro fine after he tried to take an Afghan girl from France to the UK. Rob Lawrie
ADVERTISEMENTA former British soldier received a warning and a suspended 1,000 euro fine after he tried to take an Afghan girl from France to the UK.
Rob Lawrie had been asked by the four-year-old’s father to drive her to relatives in the north of England.
“I’ll tell you this one thing you know: compassion was in the dock today and France sent out a message that compassion will win. France is a humane country. They want the best for these refugees who’ve had bad press, with young men getting on trains and trucks and what have you. You guys need to start reporting the real story and telling the world about children in these camps that are going to die this winter if we, as a European nation, do not help them now,” he told reporters after the court hearing.
Lawrie had been a volunteer helper at the migrant camp known as “the jungle” in the French town of Calais where Bahar and her father lived.
The ex-soldier hid the girl in a compartment over the driver’s seat of his truck, but French police caught him and sent her back to her father in the camp.