Illegal Afghan who feared he would be shot by the Taliban has 'tried to enter the UK four times'

Khalid Ahmadi appeared at Leeds Crown Court this week after he was caught by Border Force officers on June 17 on a rigid-hull boat with 52 other migrants desperately attempting to reach the UK across the English Channel.

Held in HMP Leeds, the 34-year-old Afghan admitted a charge of entering the UK illegally. Prosecutor Charlotte Noddings said he had made attempts to enter the country in 2007, 2010 and 2018.

In 2007 he was arrested and refused entry. In 2010 he entered again and tried to claim asylum and was refused, as was his appeal. He absconded and at some point left the country having later applied for asylum in Italy. Then in 2018 the father-of-three was found concealed in a HGV trying to get back into Britain.

After his latest arrest, he fully admitted to the interviewing officers that he had entered the UK illegally, before being held on remand in the Armley prison.

Mitigating, Michael Greenhalgh said that Ahmadi had returned to Afghanistan after the Taliban had regained control in 2021, but his relatives were murdered because they had helped the US and French Army during the occupation.

He was forced to move around Afghanistan to conceal his identity, but was eventually contacted by the regime who ordered that he work for them. Fearing for his life, he left the country again. Mr Greenhalgh said: “It has cost him everything he has to be here.”

Ahmadi addressed the court himself and said: “I love this country, I love the people. I want to build my life in this country and bring my three children.”

Judge Christopher Batty jailed him for eight months and said: “You have tried in the past to come to this country on three separate occasions, and on each occasion, you were refused.

"You have told a very sad tale of your life in Afghanistan, but I can’t be sure what you are telling me is untrue.”