Court grants Syrian migrants immediate access to UK

LONDON

Four Syrian migrants have arrived in Britain after judges ordered they should be allowed to leave a French camp known as "The Jungle" in Calais.
The three teenagers and a 26-year-old man with mental health issues should be brought to Britain and allowed to stay while their asylum applications were considered, the Immigration and Asylum Tribunal has ruled.

The group were greeted by family members at St Pancras rail station in North London late Thursday night.

One seventeen-year-old -- whose name cannot be disclosed because he is legally a minor -- said he felt "so thankful because I would never have imagined I would be reunited with my brother".

"I want to thank the lawyers who went that extra mile to reunite me and my brother. I feel so thankful."

The immigration tribunal judges ruled the group of four were entitled to come to the U.K. under European Union law, which allows people who have a relative legally living in an EU country to seek asylum there.

But anti-immigration campaigners said the move could encourage more migrants to come to Britain.

Alp Mehmet, from the anti-immigration group MigrationWatch, told the Daily Telegraph: "The decision is simply wrong. It will encourage more and more to bypass the system for asylum.

"I encourage the Home Office to appeal as forcefully as possible.

"It seems these four applicants are unhappy with the treatment of their asylum case in France and rather than trying to address that are simply trying to short-circuit the rules to have their case considered here."

Thousands of people are thought to be living in the "Jungle" camp in Calais, northern France, many living in squalid conditions as they wait for an opportunity to cross the English Channel into the U.K.