Try to meet your friend in the UK

You have to be physically present in the UK to file an asylum claim there. To do so you plan to go through France, heading towards Calais where from there you hope to gain entry to the UK- the distance between Dover, England, and Calais is only 30 miles. You reach Calais by hiding in the back of vans or riding public transport. Most of the time you have to sleep rough before moving on to the next destination.

Once there you plan to cross the channel like many others before you- smuggle yourself onto a truck crossing the channel on the ferry, but security has since stepped up. Now people are putting their lives at stake almost every night as they try to walk through the underground Eurotunnel which connects Dover and Calais- to do so they have to rush over barbed wire fence barricades blocking the entrance to the tunnel, often dodging riot police that have been dispatched to stop them. Even if they do make it to this point, some will not survive the walk- nine people have died making this journey in July alone, most hit by the fast pace traffic.

While you await for the right moment to cross, you are stuck living in one of the makeshift camps in Calais. .An estimated 5,000 people displaced from countries including Syria, Libya and Eritrea are believed to be camped in and around Calais and conditions in these places are deplorable.The French police have broken down several camps around Calais and the night time raids that have evicted their residents were pretty violent- the French riot police are well known for their brutality.