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Migrants who walked into UK just by saying 'family'
Peter Allen in Paris12 Feb 2009
A family of Iraqi migrants today told how saying "family" was enough to evade security in Calais and start a new life in Britain.
Faradh and Bahan Maruj and their two children are now living in Birmingham after paying people smugglers $800 to cross the Channel.
After a failed attempt to smuggle themselves aboard a lorry in the summer, they got into the passenger cab of a Dutch lorry in November.
When it was stopped by customs officials in Calais Mr Maruj, 28, used one of his few words of English - family.
There were no searches, and no requests for passports or other papers. "I said 'family', and the customs official shut the door," said Mr Maruj, who claims to have been persecuted because he was an alcohol salesman in Kirkuk, north of Baghdad.
Mr Maruj and his 24-year-old wife opened a UK bank account before they reached Britain.
They paid their life savings into it before leaving Iraq, ensuring that they could use the money to pay for their illegal passage.
During three months in Calais the family, including sons Faragh, eight, and Saffir, three, spent some time on a notorious stretch of wasteland known as The Jungle.
Mr Maruj said his alcohol business in Iraq was firebombed by the "Taliban", and his eldest son was kidnapped.
"They wanted me to close my shop," said Mr Maruj. "I said No. They put their knife on Faragh's throat. They kidnapped him. I paid a random. Then they started a fire and threw a bomb in the shop. Some members of my family and some friends were killed. We had to leave. We came here because we can get our papers."
At the end of June, after selling their house and car, the family left for England, travelling through Turkey, Greece, Italy and France, by foot and by lorry.
The family now has council accommodation in Birmingham and is paid around £170 a week in benefits.
Last month France called on Britain to toughen controls against the thousands of migrants who arrive to cross the Channel.
During a visit to Calais, the country's hard-line immigration minister Eric Besson said his London counterparts were not doing enough.
Instead, he said, lax security in the Channel tunnel and at ports was encouraging people to try to enter Britain illegally - causing huge problems for the French.
Reader views (26)
They come to the UK for a better life after being persecuted in their home country and this is the welcome you give them? How would you like it if you had been through what they have. The UK should DO MORE for people who come to live a new life here.
- Mike Wilson, london, 13/02/2009 13:02
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As our actions have turned their native country into a dangerous anarchic war zone, I think that the UK has a moral obligation to offer them sanctuary. These people deserve our sympathy not our condemnation… read their story, can you imagine what it must be like to have to drag your family across a continent, not knowing what the future holds? Do you think they do it for fun? Do you think they would rather live peacefully in their own country if they could? And what do they get when they finally get to what they thought was a civilised country that would offer them protection? Hatred and bigotry, just for trying to provide a better life for themselves.
- Nj, London, 13/02/2009 11:41
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No right of abode and given that they entered at least three other (safe) countries then any late claim to Political Asylum would be laughable.
- Mark, South-East London, 13/02/2009 10:28
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I'm on the verge of having my house, which I have had for 12 years, reposessed....I'm a single parent struggling to exist on the laughable amount of £60.50 a week whilst desperately looking for work. I've applied for over 500 positions with only one interview coming from those applications. On behalf of many like me I'd like to thank the government for being so magnanimous for helping everyone except the people of this nation who are experiencing the hardest times of their lives and are probably on the verge of losing everything.....Thanks Gordon!
- Sara Griffiths, Twickenham UK, 13/02/2009 09:56
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My brother was born and bred in England but moved to America and was there for 10 years. He had 2 strokes and my elderly mother and I brought him back to the U.K. Although he had 2 strokes and was paralysed down one side, he was refused benefits or disability allowance because he hadn't lived here for the last 10 years (despite paying NI contributions and tax for the previous 20 years!) I had to fight with councils, social security officers and MP's for months to finally get him the basic unemployment benefit. When this was finally sorted, he was told he was unable to open a bank account because he hadn't lived here for the last 3 years and had no utility bills in his name and therefore no proof that he actually lived here, even though he had a letter from his doctor and his birth certificate as proof. To hear this story beggars belief and is yet another example of why the indigenous people of this country are becoming filled with intolerance, anger and hatred. If the government don't change their laws soon, there will be civil war in this country. Don't say you haven't been warned Gordon!!
- Susie, London, 13/02/2009 09:20
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Can someone enlighten me as to why the UK feels obliged to offer free houses and money to people from abroad? Doesn't the UK have enough of its own citizens who really need this? What incentive does this give to people to ever work?
- Nikos S, Nicosia, CYPRUS, 13/02/2009 05:54
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This government is unfit to govern this nation. We need to DEMAND an election ASAP, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
- Brandon Thomas, London UK, 13/02/2009 01:48
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Why is this allowed? I've worked all of my life and even though I'm retired I'm still working part time.
- George, Sleaford UK, 12/02/2009 23:01
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I spend over a thousand pounds for the last couple of years to legally work and live in the UK.
I find it hilarious reading of how the government tries to balance those banking books!!
- Katie, London, 12/02/2009 21:29
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... and which darned UK bank allowed them to open an ACCOUNT for goodness' sake while still resident in Iraq?
- Marianne, SW France, 12/02/2009 19:25
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How very shocking. Not.
- Real, London, 12/02/2009 17:34
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I am amazed that these people have been given housing and benifits. I have an elderly cousin, living alone on very little income and she is not as well off as this man and his family. So unfair to British Citizens.
If I tried this after landing in Heathrow from Canada would I be given such treatment? I doubt it.
- Stephen Carter, Fredericton, New brunswick, Canada, 12/02/2009 17:33
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Yes but the point is when they get here its too late. We should do what the French do in regards to health care. No matter who you are if you go to the Doctor its 20 Euros please, if you are in the system you get 70% back, and if you are in the system you can pay for "top up insurance" the point is that you have to pay. Not in the UK, walk in and get the same benefits which UK taxpayers have been paying for years.
- Jim Alan, Lake District, 12/02/2009 17:25
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They might be a nice family but for god's sake when is this madness going to end?
- Gary, London, 12/02/2009 17:02
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I just despair at this yet another case of lets go to the UK we can be sure of free housing and welfare all paid by those muppets the UK taxpayer.
When will it stop if ever never again will I ever vote for the parties in Westminster
- John, London UK, 12/02/2009 16:51
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You couldn't make it up. No wonder the French think we get all we deserve.
- Andrew Schofield, London UK, 12/02/2009 16:41
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So a Dutch citizen Geert Wilders is stopped from coming in but any old illegal immigrant from Iraq just strolls in. You couldn't make it up. What a country!
- Keith Price, Luton, England, 12/02/2009 16:36
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Has april fools day come early.
- Mike, London, 12/02/2009 16:29
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There are hundreds of "asylum seekers" just outside Calais.Thery are being lookedafter by charities,every night a few get through.This must be because the Borders Agency is not fit for purpose. Don't they have any people on the housing lisst in Birmingham? Why didn't this family settle in Turkey,the first safe country?Could it be because they would not receive such generous benefits?
- Madge Blair, Cahors France, 12/02/2009 16:27
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Presumably this family will be returned to Greece, which is the first EU country that they arrived in. It is shameful that hard-pressed British taxpayers are having to pay for this family's housing and spending money of £8840 a year. Most British people cannot get council housing.
- Anthony, London, 12/02/2009 16:19
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What more can be said Loony-Lying-Nu-Labour fools or perhaps we are.
- Mike,, London, 12/02/2009 16:13
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Ever get the feeling we've been had?
- Mike B, London, 12/02/2009 16:12
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No UK passport controls?
- James Ritchie, Oyster Bay Cove, NY, USA, 12/02/2009 16:04
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I'm on OAP on basic pension despite having paid in all my life. It galls me to hear of people like this on nearly twice as much and having paid nothing in. He had a business back home and says he sent all their life savings to a bank account in the UK. Do these idiotic immigration officers ever check arrivals' wealth. and I mean really check. Fully body search at least. I know there is a load of smuggling of wealth into the country by such people who then claim poverty and get benefits from us.
- Bobc, Hackney, 12/02/2009 15:55
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Pathetic, pathetic PATHETIC. Hang your collective heads in shame Labour. You are absolutely useless. Why the hell should anyone from abroad get housing and benefits?
- Roger, Surrey, 12/02/2009 15:50
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This government must be removed ASAP!
- Nick Nack Paddy Mac, Kilburn, London UK, 12/02/2009 15:34
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