The Syrian refugee arrested over the Parsons Green bombing entered Britain on a truck after staying in the Calais ‘Jungle’, a family member has revealed.
Yahyah Faroukh, who was arrested in Hounslow Saturday night outside the halal chicken shop where he worked, sought to break into Britain because he saw “no future” for himself in Egypt, where his family lives after they left the Syrian capital Damascus in 2012.
“He and his friend got to England on a lorry,” Faroukh’s sister-in-law, who lives in Terheijden in the Netherlands, told The Sun.
“He didn’t want to stay in Egypt because there was no future there,” she added.
Arabic Al Aan TV’s Jenan Moussa was told by family members of Farouk’s, who are asylum seekers living in the Netherlands’ Noord-Brabant region, that the 21-year-old took a boat to Italy in 2013,
“I’m shocked by his arrest. He’s ambitious, loves the UK, studies to be journalist,” the reporter quoted an unnamed brother of the suspect in a series of tweets about her discussion with the family.
Farouk was reportedly fostered by the same British couple who also cared for a number of refugees including the 18-year-old Iraqi orphan currently being held as the prime suspect in the attack, which saw 30 injured after a crude improvised explosive device in a bucket was left with a timer on a London Tube train.
Penny and Ron Jones’s house remains at the centre of the inquiry after the refugee was caught on camera leaving on foot with the bucket bomb on Friday morning.
The elderly couple, who have fostered hundreds of children and were awarded MBEs by the Queen for their dedication to young people, struggled to cope with the Iraqi teen’s bad behaviour, and the Daily Mail reported that they are “so devastated by what has happened they have decided never to foster again”.
In February, more than 200 celebrities signed an open letter which branded the government “truly shameful”, after it announced the closure of a scheme to resettle in Britain “unaccompanied minors” living in Calais and elsewhere in Europe.
Actress Juliet Stevenson said it was “impossible to understand the decision”, stating: “How can you argue against getting children out of appalling refugee camps and into some sort of home?”
Breitbart London reported on how the scheme was terminated following a series of controversies such as disputes over the true age of the so-called “child refugees”, and reports of crime including rape and serious assault.
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