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Parsons Green terrorist bombing: Dover MP Charlie Elphicke asks about possible Calais Jungle link

An MP has expressed alarm at reports that a suspect in the Parsons Green bombing may have come from the Calais Jungle.

National newspapers have reported that the 18-year-old arrested in Dover after Friday’s terrorist attack in London may have come to Britain from the notorious migrant camp.

Dover and Deal MP Charlie Elphicke said: “Reports that the 18-year-old arrested at the Port of Dover on Saturday was previously in the Calais Jungle are deeply concerning.

Food queue at the Jungle last year. Two years after the Parsons Green suspect reportedly left
Food queue at the Jungle last year. Two years after the Parsons Green suspect reportedly left

“It is important to know the full facts and circumstances in which he came to Britain and the checks that were made. It’s clearly urgent we have answers.”

The Daily Telegraph reported that the teenager is thought to have come to England three years ago as an orphan refugee and had gone across Europe, reaching the Jungle, which was demolished last year.

As an unaccompanied child he was allowed into this country and was eventually found a home with a foster family in Sunbury on Thames, Surrey.

The Daily Star quotes Ian Harvey, leader of the county’s Spelthorne Borough Council, that he believed the suspect was from Iraq, where his parents died.

Charlie Elphicke outside the Jungle, Calais, September 2016
Charlie Elphicke outside the Jungle, Calais, September 2016

It says the suspect is believed to have been trying to get to the UK for months while in the Jungle.

A charity is thought to have helped him move into Britain when he was 15 and put him in foster care.

The 18-year-old was arrested at the Port of Dover on Saturday morning under Section 41 of the Terrorism Act.

It happened the day after a bomber struck a rush hour tube train at Parsons Green, west London, injuring dozens of people.

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