Haroun caused delays of up to four hours before he was found at the Folkestone end of the tunnel after travelling from Sudan.
12:03, UK,Wednesday 22 June 2016
A Sudanese man has been sentenced to nine months in jail after walking through the Channel Tunnel from France to Britain.
Abdul Rahman Haroun, who has been granted asylum in the UK, pleaded guilty to "obstructing an engine or a carriage using a railway".
The 40-year-old was caught near the end of the 31-mile tunnel at Folkestone, Kent on 4 August last year.
His walk caused delays of up to four hours for travellers and had a "significant economic consequence", according to prosecutor Philip Bennetts QC.
Haroun made made his way into the tunnel after a perilous journey from Sudan to Egypt, then across the sea from Libya to Italy, before travelling to Calais.
He jumped over the fence surrounding the Eurotunnel line and made his way through the tunnel "walking sometimes on the right and sometimes on the left", Mr Bennetts said.
He added: "He was asked how he had got into the tunnel and he said 'I came from France, always trying to get here'."
After his arrest, he told police through an interpreter: "I came here for protection and to be safe.
"It was the only solution, yeah.
"I didn't have any orders ... there wasn't any other solution."
Haroun was recognised as a refugee and granted asylum on Christmas Eve.
Channel Tunnel operator Eurotunnel criticised the decision and said it could encourage further attempts.
The judge acknowledged Haroun had travelled from Sudan "in a state of desperation" when he decided to walk through the tunnel.
However she said: "The reason why the courts of the United Kingdom take such a serious view of this criminality is that those who enter in this way seek to evade the authorities, who can, therefore, have no check upon who is entering the country.
"In the world in which we live of international crime and terrorism that is a very serious matter.
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