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JANE ATKINSON
EU drove desperate Alhashimi family to people smugglers… and the tragic death of seven-year-old Sara
Let's take some time to remember how Europe's 'great values' betrayed a tragic little seven-year-old girl called Sara
TO the Brexit-hating EU officials, our Rwanda policy is heartless and cruel.
There’s barely a day goes by without them giving it a kicking.
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French President Emmanuel Macron has even said sending migrants to another country is “a betrayal of our values” as Europeans.
But what I would call really heartless are some of the migrant policies within the EU itself.
This week we learned how they drove the Alhashimi family into the arms of people smugglers, which led to the death of their little girl.
What happened to seven-year-old Sara Alhashimi is utterly harrowing, desperate and heartbreaking.
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Not perfect solution
She was crushed to death in a migrant boat as she and her family tried to cross the Channel to England.
To anybody who met her, this little girl was European. She was born in Belgium and raised in Scandinavia.
Her Iraqi father Ahmed had been told that all of his asylum attempts had failed and he, his wife and three children were going to be deported, within just two days, to Iraq.
Belgian officials argued that his home town of Basra was classified as a safe area but he was terrified of returning to the place he had fled from 14 years earlier because of Iraqi militants.
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He paid £5,000 to people smugglers and they boarded a dinghy.
But as more and more refugees piled in, his tiny little daughter was trampled to death.
Britain sends first ever migrant to Rwanda in historic move that paves way to ‘stop the boats’ and kick out thousands more
Ahmed says he will never be able to forgive himself.
But you have to wonder if the officials in Brussels will ever be able to forgive themselves, either.
It seems ironic that Sara’s death came within hours of Rishi Sunak passing a bill to deport illegal migrants from our shores to Rwanda.
We all know it is not a perfect solution.
And we know our country really doesn’t want to be in this position.
But at least we are not pushing families into the hands of people smugglers.
And I’m damn sure that Kigali is a lot safer than the streets of Basra.
That, of course, won’t matter to our critics in the EU, such as President Macron.
They will pile in to take the high ground and attack us over Rwanda at every opportunity.
But the next time you hear them say we are “betraying European values” over migrants, maybe you should pause for a moment.
And remember how their great values betrayed a tragic little seven-year-old girl called Sara.
MAKING A MEAL OF LAW
THERE are a few professions where those employed within it really should have a decent amount of integrity and respect for the law – and solicitor is obviously high on the list.
But lawyer Kerry Ann Stevens was struck off after joining the “dine and dash” craze.
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The fraudster has refused to pay for a £43 Just Eat kebab, a £60.91 meal at a Harvester restaurant and has got the chop from a local Chinese after the boss accused her and another person of leaving without paying a £127 bill.
Angry locals at a pub in Essex even barricaded the door so the police could deal with Stevens and her partner, who allegedly scoffed a huge dinner washed down with wine before coming up with a string of excuses as to why they couldn’t pay.
You wonder what makes someone from such a respected job break the law like this when they know it inside out – unless, of course, they have become so arrogant they think they’re actually above it.
CO-OP A FLOP
A NEW survey has told me something I already know – the people of Manchester, my home city, are the most sociable in Britain.
According to a survey by MoneySuperMarket, your average Manc goes out seven times a month.
Since I became a mum I imagine that has halved for me but there’s nothing I love more than a night out and catching up with my mates.
But I doubt any of us will be heading to the new Co-op Live venue any time soon.
It has been riddled with scary issues such as loose wiring and cables gaffer-taped to the walls.
And as we already have amazing music venues including the AO Arena and O2 Apollo, I can’t really work out why someone bothered wasting the money on building this new one in the first place.
I AM pleased that viewers will see Jeremy Clarkson getting visibly upset in the new series of Clarkson’s Farm.
Not because I like to see a grown man cry, you understand.
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But because I am sick of all farmers being seen as cold-hearted, cruel, evil killers who only care about the money.
Viewers will see Jeremy get tearful because his cow Pepper is taken to the abattoir.
For those who think that is far fetched, I can tell you it isn’t.
I grew up on a small hill farm in the Yorkshire Dales and my family would get visibly upset too when the sheep and cows were sold.
And for those few who we gave pet names to, it was hideous.
I don’t think I will ever forget rushing home from school to feed my pet lamb Snowy, only to discover he had been transported off to the great big Sunday dinner in the sky.
But I guess that is the price the decent farming families have to pay for caring until the end.
Boris has skeleton in the cupboard
NETFLIX’S new reality show Bear Hunt has an amazing line-up, with Danny Cipriani, Spice Girl Mel B and Saturdays singer Una Healy signed, together with Holly Willoughby.
But how disgraceful that Boris Becker has been given a big-money deal.
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The former tennis star has been to prison for fraud and once had sex in a broom cupboard.
What kind of example does that set for the kids watching a family show?
NICE ONE, KATE
HOW wonderful that Kate continued the tradition of taking photos of her children on their birthdays, with the new snap of nine-year-old Princess Charlotte.
Onlookers spotted that it was a nod to her “Gan-Gan”, the late Queen, because it was taken next to a Clematis Elizabeth plant.
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And instead of dressing Charlotte up in a new fancy outfit, down-to-earth Kate chose the same red cardigan that she wore for that Mother’s Day shoot.
The birthday girl looked amazing and I am pretty sure our notoriously frugal former monarch would be immensely proud of both of them.
LUNACY OF TOM KILLING
THE family of caring grandfather Thomas O’Halloran, who was fatally stabbed on his mobility scooter, are “disgusted” the murder charge was dropped against his killer. So am I.
The 87-year-old, who often busked to raise money for war-torn Ukraine, was stabbed in the neck and chest by Lee Byer in a completely motiveless attack in Greenford, West London.
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Byer was a career criminal who had 15 previous convictions for 30 offences and once laughed in the dock of the Old Bailey.
He had been released from prison just FIVE days earlier and was due in court accused of a violent attack on a woman.
Although he was charged with murder, the prosecution lowered it to manslaughter because mental health reports found he was psychotic, hearing voices, suffering from paranoid delusions and paranoid schizophrenia.
This just echoes the case of Valdo Calocane, 32, who killed Grace O’Malley-Kumar, Barnaby Webber and Ian Coates in Nottingham last year, but the Crown Prosecution Service dropped murder charges against him too.
Which makes it all the more shocking that Byer was even on the streets of London ready to attack.
Surely it is time for our police, CPS and health services to work together so another innocent person’s life is not snuffed out in such a hideous way.
CHEAT IS ON
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AMANDA Holden is to host a new dating show called Cheaters: Unfinished Business.
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It will show her guiding ex-couples who broke up due to cheating to see if they can face up to their mistakes and rebuild their relation-ships.
I bet you Les Dennis tunes in just for a laugh.
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