He feels like a «toy» caught between two countries, a participant in a «lottery» that has left him in a state of confusion. He manages only with 100 milligrams of Sertraline a day, an antidepressant. Binyam (all those mentioned by first name requested anonymity) is a 26-year-old Eritrean. He was among the first migrants sent back to France after reaching the United Kingdom irregularly aboard flimsy dinghies, known as small boats.
Nearly 37,000 people have managed to cross the Channel since the beginning of the year. Among them, under a migration agreement signed between Paris and London this summer, at least 50 have already been sent back to square one. On Tuesday, August 12, Binyam and about 70 others took to the sea. After two failed attempts and a month spent scraping by in camps around Dunkirk, northern France, he thought he had reached his goal of €1,400. However, about 10 people from his group were placed in detention upon arrival in England under the «one in, one out» bilateral agreement, since the UK is supposed to accept the same number of people on its territory as it sends back to France. So far, about 20 people have been admitted to Britain.
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