Aid Worker Says Bid To Smuggle Girl ‘Irrational’

The trial of a British former soldier who tried to smuggle a 4-year-old Afghan girl into the United Kingdom ended in acquittal on Thursday in France.

Former British soldier Rob Lawrie looks at a photograph on his computer of himself with Bahar Ahmadi, during an interview with Reuters in Guiseley, Britain January 6, 2016.

Although migrants have been gathering around Calais for years, The Jungle grew rapidly in early 2015 as the migration crisis took hold. “She is an intelligent, articulate four-year-old girl”.

Lawrie visited the Jungle, which is home to thousands of refugees and migrants, on a number of humanitarian trips and said he developed a close bond with Bru and her father.

Rob Lawrie has been given a suspended fine of 1,000 euros (£750).

Britain and France have jointly tightened security around the harbour and railway lines over the past months, but the camp remains. “Around the world, thank you, thank you, thank you”.

“Compassion in the dock”.

Leaving court, Lawrie vowed: “I will return to the Jungle, raise awareness, kick up a storm somehow”.

“We can not leave these children in these camps. I will carry on fighting for these children”. “I tried to make sure she could join her family”, he added. “I feel so light”.

But French police stopped Lawrie with the girl after he passed British customs at the French port when sniffer dogs detected two Eritrean migrants who had sneaked into the back of his van.

“It’s cost me my family, my financially I am virtually bankrupt”, he said.

“In the light of day now, without the emotion attached at the time, I would have not done it”, Lawrie told the court. He raised funds for migrants, travelled to Calais to help them build up the camp.

“Instead of me building one a day, with my Sudanese friends we could build three or four a day”.

He told the assembled media: “They see the media attention I have been getting and I think it could go one of two ways”.

“Eventually, I had a waiting list”.

He also told the court he had a long medical history of bipolar disorder and Tourette’s syndrome. Lawrie told AFP in November.

Mr Valensi said that Lawrie had in fact put her in danger by putting her in a “tiny little hiding place” that was screwed shut. He served in Northern Ireland during the conflict in the 1980s, and patrolled the East German border before serving in Cyprus and Belize.

Lawrie hid Bru in a compartment in his truck on the night of October 24 and drove back to the United Kingdom, where Bru has family, from the squalid refugee camp. Ahmadi’s father begged Lawrie to take her to their relatives in England.

“These children are in so much trouble, basically because they lost the birth lottery”, he said. She said a child could not be considered an illegal immigrant under law.

Bahar and her dad, Reza Ahmadi, were in the courtroom, too.