Braving dangerous waters, Iranians seek a better life in Britain

Iranian asylum seeker Babak Hajipour poses for a photograph in Liverpool, Britain January 14, 2019. Picture taken January 14, 2019. REUTERS/Andrew Yates

LIVERPOOL (Reuters) - The traffickers told Fardin Gholami that a fishing boat would take him from France to England at midnight, but when he and five other Iranian asylum seekers got to the beach, all they found was an inflatable dinghy with nobody to sail it.

Gholami had paid 16,000 euros to human traffickers to take him from Kamyaran, in western Iran, to Britain. But on the seashore near Calais he realised he and his compatriots would now have to fend for themselves.