Monitoring Desk
LONDON: Four teenage Afghan boys have been arrested in the United Kingdom (UK) in connection with the alleged rape of a schoolgirl aged 15.
One, 15 years old, was arrested on suspicion of the rape, while the other three, aged 13, 15 and 16, were arrested on suspicion of facilitating the alleged rapist in attack on the girl. The incident took place at a school in the town of Dover on February 6.
All the boys arrived in UK as refugees
The Times quoted the sources as having said that three of the boys held the victim down and acted as lookouts while the fourth raped her. All the boys had arrived in the UK as refugees in 2022 and have been released on bail. They all attended the school and are under the care of social services as they arrived in the United Kingdom as unaccompanied minors seeking asylum.
According to rough estimates, nearly 50,000 people crossed the English Channel illegally last year to claim asylum. Another over 2,000 have already made the trip since the start of 2023 despite poor weather conditions and an accident that claimed the lives of four people in January this year.
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Asylum-seekers claiming to be unaccompanied children currently account for around 17 percent of all arrivals crossing the Channel in small boats, with 8,700 making the journey in 2022.
The majority comes from Afghanistan. At 6,500 in total, they also make up the second-largest proportion of people trying to reach the UK by small boats overall following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021.
