This is the moment an Afghan small boat migrant tries to smuggle himself out of Britain on a lorry after being left feeling ‘depressed and isolated’ by life in the UK.
Zahir has made four attempts to sneak into HGVs leaving the Port of Dover in a bid to relocate to Germany, but has failed each time and now sleeps in a London park.
The 29-year-old said he fled Afghanistan when the Taliban found out his family had helped supply food to British and American forces.
He was granted asylum in France and had a job in a slaughterhouse before paying smugglers €1,500 (£1,260) to take him over the Channel to the UK in August 2024.
But he now bitterly regrets this decision and says the idealised picture he was given of life in Britain has not turned out to be the reality – even as record numbers of migrants continue arriving here from France.
Zahir, who did not provide his surname, now wants to get out of the country as soon as possible by stowing away in a lorry to the Continent.
‘It was a big mistake. I came here because of my mum – she was always saying ”we helped them so they will help you”.’
The Afghan began crying as he told of feeling severely depressed after being removed to a remote area of the UK.
Zahir has tried to sneak into HGVs leaving the Port of Dover four times in a desperate attempt to relocate to Germany but failed each time and now sleeps in a London park
He took pictures of one of the times he tried to stow away on a truck leaving the UK
Zahir wearing a hoodie while posing for a photo on a bridge in central London
Zahir also complained of not being allowed to work while his asylum claim was processed.
‘I used to say ”hello, how are you?’ to people but they weren’t interested. Nobody has offered me the chance to go to college to learn English. I told the Home Office I was very depressed,’ he said.
‘I didn’t mind living there, it’s that there were just four people [in the accommodation]. Nobody would talk to me so how can I live my life? I couldn’t speak English.’
Asylum seekers can receive up to £3,000 if they agree to return to their home country.
But Zahir believes he will be killed if he goes back to Afghanistan and wants to go to Germany instead to reunite with family friends.
The first time he tried to hide in a lorry leaving Dover he was discovered during a random Border Force check.
The other three times he was seen by the drivers themselves.
The asylum seeker had been living in Home Office accommodation before deciding to leave and go to London, where he knew other Afghans.
Very few people seem to be put off by stories like Zahir’s, with migrants continuing to cross the Channel in large numbers
TikTok videos have been shared showing Channel crossings on Saturday
But this means he is now cut off from official support and is now living in a park in London, where he sleeps under a children’s slide and relies on food donated by locals.
‘My main priority is accommodation, and I just really want to sleep. The park is not safe for me. Drug addicts are asking me for cigarettes,’ he said.
Zahir took his initial decision to flee Afghanistan after the Taliban came to power in 2021 and found official records that showed his father and brother had been working at a Western military base.
They found his father and interrogated him about his children’s whereabouts before killing him. Zahir said they also murdered his brother and shared a picture of his body that he keeps on his mobile phone.
After travelling through Iran, Turkey, Greece, Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia and Italy he made it to France, where he was granted asylum and worked in a slaughterhouse in Toulouse.
He puts his decision to go to the UK partly down to the influence of his mother, who said he should go there ‘because they are good for humanity’.
After contacting Kurdish people smugglers, Zahir described making his way across the Channel in an overcrowded boat with 70 people onboard.
Migrants are driven away from the Border Force base in Dover in Kent on Saturday
The story of Zahir, revealed to The National, parallels with that of 25-year-old Alaa Eldin, who revealed last year how he was living under a rowing boat on a beach in Kent.
The Syrian had been trying to escape the UK since last summer when he was evicted from a Home Office hotel in Leeds.
Admittedly, both their stories are extremely rare – with far more asylum seekers continuing to travel to Britain by chancing their lives in the Channel.
Sir Keir Starmer has admitted the public has ‘every right to be angry’ about the issue after more than a thousand migrants made the journey in a single day for the first time this year.
Home Office data showed 1,194 migrants arrived in 18 boats on Saturday.
But Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch described Sir Keir’s words as ‘rubbish’, claiming that even Defence Secretary John Healey had acknowledged ministers had ‘lost control’ of the borders.
Saturday’s figures were the first time daily crossings topped a thousand in 2025, and prompted Mr Healey to claim Britain had ‘lost control’ over the last five years, implicating the former Tory government.
Writing on social media site X on Monday, the Prime Minister said: ‘You have every right to be angry about small boat crossings.
‘I’m angry too. We are ramping up our efforts to smash the people smuggling gangs at source.’
Zahir’s story has parallels with that of 25-year-old Alaa Eldin, who revealed last year how he was living under a rowing boat on a beach in Kent
He claimed hundreds of boats and engines had been ‘seized’, raids on illegal working were up, and ‘almost 30,000 people’ had been returned.
But Mrs Badenoch hit back, responding: ‘Rubbish! Even the Defence Secretary admits the govt has ‘lost control’ of our borders.’
Small boat arrivals are ‘up 95% from this point in 2023’, she said, and claimed ministers had ‘scrapped the only viable deterrent’: the previous Conservative government’s Rwanda plan.
Sir Keir had earlier insisted the Rwanda plan ‘didn’t deter anybody’, after his decision to scrap it was highlighted while he visited Glasgow for a major defence announcement.
He added: ‘I’m not up for gimmicks. I’m up for the hard work of working with partners, enhancing the powers that law enforcement have, in my determination to take down the gangs that are running this vile trade.’
Saturday’s crossings brought the provisional annual total so far of migrants who have made the journey to 14,811.
This is 42 per cent higher than the same point last year (10,448) and 95% up from the same point in 2023 (7,610).
It is still lower than the highest daily total of 1,305 arrivals since data began in 2018, which was recorded on September 3, 2022.
