An asylum seeker sleeping under a boat on a Kent beach has warned others looking to travel to Britain: "Don’t come here - the system is broken."<br /><br />Alaa Eldin, 25, is sheltering under the upturned craft on Dover seafront after being left homeless and penniless.<br /><br />Originally from Syria, he is now regularly trying to sneak into the back of lorries at the town’s port to try and get back to mainland Europe.<br /><br />Mr Eldin, who crossed the Channel on a rubber dinghy more than two years ago, is desperate to leave Britain after his asylum claim failed - and wants to head to Germany to find work.<br /><br />He said: “I want to work and get a job as a plasterer. <br /><br />"But I have been here for more than two years and I’ve been out on the street for five months.<br /><br />“I don’t have money. I don’t have anything. I’m tired and I want to leave.<br /><br />“Because I don’t have a home I have to sleep on the beach and sometimes it’s so cold I have to light a fire.”<br /><br />Mr Eldin fled Syria nine years ago because of a civil war there and says his return would mean being conscripted into the army.<br /><br />He originally moved to Germany, settling in with family members there – but after falling out with them he moved to England.<br /><br />He got into Britain on a people traffickers’ rubber dinghy in August 2021 and then claimed asylum.<br /><br />Mr Eldin at first stayed in Leeds and was hoping to settle down in the UK and earn money as a plasterer, but asylum seekers are not allowed to work while their claim is being processed.<br /><br />With the process dragging on and eventually deciding there was no future in this country, he applied to voluntarily leave. He says because of that officials withdrew his asylum case.<br /><br />He explains this in turn meant he was no longer entitled to any form of state benefit or accommodation.<br /><br />Mr Eldin says if he could get his asylum seeker status returned he would be willing to stay in Britain, provided he eventually wins his application. <br /><br />However, to get that back he needs a solicitor but can’t get legal aid at present because of a backlog of cases.<br /><br />He hopes he can get back to Germany where he has other relatives he can join.<br /><br />Asked what message he now has for the tens of thousands of people attempting to reach Britain via small boats across the Channel, he said: “Don’t come here any more - the system is broken.<br /><br />“England has come down. It’s not like before. There is nothing here.”<br /><br />Mr Eldin returned to Dover five months ago in the hope of sailing back to the Continent.<br /><br />He has made friends locally and they put him up a couple of nights a week, but they cannot do so full-time because it would breach their tenancy agreements.<br /><br />He has also met members of the town’s Dover Outreach Centre.<br /><br />The homelessness charity is supporting him, such as through legal advice, particularly to get him back into the asylum system.<br /><br />He uses the charity’s Sunrise community café for meals. It only charges people what they can afford.
