Rob Lawrie, a 49-year-old former British army soldier, risked five years in prison and a €30,000 fine for trying to smuggle a four-year-old Afghan girl into Britain last October 24th.
Applause and cries of joy resounded through the courtroom in Boulogne-sur-Mer on Thursday when the judge suspended a symbolic fine of €1,000 for having “endangered the life” of little Bahar (“Spring”) Ahmadi by transporting her in a storage compartment of his van, but spared him prison.
Lawrie had apologised profusely, telling the packed court that his "crime of compassion" was "irrational" and "stupid". Some 120,000 French people signed an internet petition on Lawrie's behalf. Another 50,000 signed a plea in English. Lawrie held Bahar Ahmadi in his arms at a press conference in Boulogne before the trial started. The pretty child with Asian eyes wore red and ate sweets. She sat in court later, playing with an iPad.
Asked if he would encourage others to follow his example, Lawrie said, “Don’t do it . . . It will destroy your life. And also it’s illegal. Learn from my lesson.”
The Jungle
Bahar’s father Reza had pleaded repeatedly with Lawrie to take his daughter to Afghan cousins who live only eight miles from Lawrie in Leeds. Lawrie refused several times but, as they sat around a campfire in the Calais refugee camp known as “The Jungle” on the night of October 24th, Bahar fell asleep on Lawrie’s knee.
"I just couldn't leave Bahar to spend one more night in that horrendous place," Lawrie told the London Independent in November. "And when you have seen what I have seen [in the Jungle] all rational thought goes out of your head." He compares conditions in the camp to Mumbai rubbish tips.
That night, Lawrie hid Bahar above the driver’s seat in his van. Sniffer dogs at a police checkpoint discovered two Eritreans in the back of the van. Lawrie says he did not know they were there. He was taken to the police station in handcuffs. When Bahar was brought in later, she threw herself into his arms, in tears.
The child's mother disappeared in Afghanistan. She still lives with her father in the Jungle, where they were recently housed in an old caravan provided by an aid group. They were not given one of the heated containers which opened in the Jungle this week, to house 1,500 people by the end of the month.
Sub-zero temperatures
French authorities have told migrants in the camp that shacks within 100m of the motorway must be vacated. “Inadequate though these shelters are, they are people’s homes,” said a statement by volunteers at the camp, who fear a confrontation. Sub-zero temperatures are expected in Calais by the weekend.
Rob Lawrie’s life was transformed by a newspaper photograph of three-year-old Alan Kurdi, lying drowned on a Turkish beach at the beginning of September. “The picture destroyed me. I packed up my carpet-cleaning business, sold the family people carrier and bought a transit van,” he said.
Lawrie transported donated clothing, sleeping bags and tents to Calais. According to Libération newspaper, his wife opposed the selling of the family car – they have four children – and has since left him.
Lawrie met Afghans, Eritreans, Sudanese, Syrians, Kurds and Iranians in the camp. He lived in a shelter like them, and helped migrants build wood and tarpaulin shacks.
Playful, laughing Bahar followed him everywhere. He became close to the child and her father.
In 2012, the socialist government passed an amendment to the 1938 French law that made helping illegal immigrants an offence. It exempts from prosecution people who receive no remuneration for providing food, lodging, medical help or legal aid “to ensure decent living conditions or preserve the dignity or physical integrity” of a foreigner.
Lawrie took no payment for trying to transport Bahar Ahmadi through the Channel Tunnel in his van. Traffickers in Calais charge €5,000–€6,000 for the journey.
A violent place
“I did it to save a little girl from the horrors of the Jungle, a violent place,” Lawrie told the French radio station RFI. “I’m not saying, ‘Open the borders and let everyone in.’ That would be stupid. But I don’t understand why the authorities won’t let me take a little girl to her family in Leeds, who will love her, give her shelter and educate her, instead of leaving her in a chemical dump where it’s cold, where fires have broken out, where people live in tents and cook with gas canisters . . . This is happening today, in
Europe
. It’s madness.”
