Family shocked to find ‘migrant’ hiding in BOOT of their car while driving back to UK from Paris day trip
A FAMILY was shocked to find a man hiding in the boot of their car while driving back to the UK from a day trip to Paris.
Khadija Hussain-Chowdhury, 20, heard rustling during the journey home before discovering a man concealed between shopping bags.
She saw the opened boot seemingly close on its own and warned her dad she could hear noises in the back while her husband paid for petrol.
The man jumped out and ran off as the trio opened the boot around 8pm on Saturday at a service station in Calais, France.
Khadija’s family believe the man in the boot was trying to make his way to the UK from France.
A group of men then emerged from the bushes before chasing the family back to England while pelting their car with stones.
Khadija, an apprentice from East London, said: “A group emerged from the darkness and surrounded the car and started shouting and swearing.
“They were all laughing and I feared something very bad was going to happen to us. Some of them were being extremely aggressive.
“I was absolutely terrified we were going to be killed and no one would know what happened to us. It was really intimidating.
“The dash cam caught the sound of rocks raining down on our car as we drove off to safety.
“People need to be warned about how dangerous this journey can be now.”
Khadija blasted the French authorities after being told the police couldn’t do anything and instead referring her to alternative phone numbers.
The incident has left her in fear as she now looks in every room twice and asks her husband to check the boot whenever he leaves home.
She added: “This has really affected me in a bad way. We are a very charitable family.
“We would have given them money or food if they asked instead of endangering us.
“I called the police but they said there was nothing they could do. It’s absolutely sickening. We could have been killed.
“The French Border Force told us we would have to go to a police station in Calais.
“But there was absolutely no way I was leaving that port and the last ferry home after what happened.”
The incident ruined her 65-year-old dad Mohammed Shajahan Chowdhury’s first ever holiday abroad, aside from leaving the UK for his home country Bangladesh.
And her husband of two years Nosherwan Ahmad Chaudhry, 22, now needs to pay around £900 to fix deep dents to his Audi S3 which he’d only owned for three months.
He feared for his wife and father-in-law’s lives as he wielded a steering wheel lock for protection before bricks were lobbed as they drove off.
The apprentice, from Bethnal Green, east London, said: “The petrol station was only around five minutes from the Port of Calais.
MORE PATROL Three extra rescue boats costing £250k hired to tackle surge in migrants crossing the Channel
Julia Atherley, Home Affairs Correspondent
THREE extra rescue boats have been hired to tackle a surge in migrants trying to cross the Channel.
The 25ft vessels, which will support others on patrol, are costing the Home Office more than £250,000 to hire.
They can carry 20 people as well as crew and have at least six life jackets for migrants that are in the water, contract details reveal.
They were due to be available last month and be in service until the beginning of December.
The hires emerged as nearly 1,000 — the highest daily figure for two years — made the crossing on Saturday.
On the same day four people died while attempting to cross the Channel – including a two-year-old boy who was “trampled to death“.
So far this year, there have been 26,612 arrivals, including 13,038 since Labour came to power, as well as 52 deaths in the Channel.
The hired boats — rigid-hulled inflatables — are going on patrol between Eastbourne, Dieppe, Ostend and Margate.
The contract states: “While migrant rescue vessels will continue to have the main role in the rescuing of migrants, the RHIBs will play a supporting role.”
The Home Office said: “We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security.”
A backlog of asylum cases means almost 225,000 migrants are waiting on initial decisions, appeals, or pending removal from the UK.
Ballooning migration has fuelled the fastest rise in Britain’s population for more than five decades.
Total UK residents hit 68,265,200 in June last year after an extra 662,400 people were absorbed in the previous 12 months.
“My wife called saying someone was in the car as I was paying. I was in shock and ran outside to protect her and her dad by any means necessary.
“This migrant suddenly jumped out the boot and started laughing like it was all a joke.
“We were all terrified. I pushed him away and told him to leave. Then we were surrounded by more than 30 people.
“I threatened to call the police but they said they’re not going to do anything despite it being an active danger.”
He added: “I was protecting my father-in-law while he filled the car up.
“As we drove off they all ran off in different directions and then I heard these loud bangs of the bricks hitting the car.
“I’m still very angry and heartbroken. I was almost in tears. But it’s more about how my wife and father in law were intimidated and made to feel than my car being damaged.”
FLIGHTS SURGE Surge in migrants deported since Labour won power – but 1,000s of rejected asylum seekers still stuck here
Julia Atherley, Home Affairs Correspondent
DEPORTATION flights are up by almost a quarter since Sir Keir Starmer entered No10 — but thousands of rejected asylum seekers and foreign criminals are stuck in the UK.
Home Office figures show 1,240 people were removed between July 5 and the end of August, up 23 per cent from the same period last year.
Another 2,360 people in that time frame returned to their home voluntarily.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has promised to deport at least 14,385 illegal migrants by the end of the year in a bid to achieve the highest rate of removals since 2018.
It means 10,785 people will have to be removed within four months.
The deportation statistics come as 26,612 people have crossed the Channel to the UK this year already.
But a backlog of asylum cases means almost 225,000 migrants are waiting on initial decisions, appeals, or pending removal from the UK.
Several chartered flights originally destined to take failed asylum seekers to Rwanda were repurposed by the Home Office.
They took migrants to countries including Vietnam and Timor-Leste.