Boy's trans-Atlantic text, fast police work save 15 migrants

[WhiteTara]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/boys-trans-atlantic-text-fast-154843312.html?nhp=1


Boy's trans-Atlantic text, fast police work save 15 migrants

GREGORY KATZ
April 8, 2016

LONDON (AP) — The text message from a young boy, writing in broken English on a no-frills cellphone, was frightening enough to set off a frantic, trans-Atlantic search that saved the lives of 15 migrants trapped in a locked truck in England.

The message flashed on the cellphone of volunteer Liz Clegg, who was attending a conference in New York: "I ned halp darivar no stap car no oksijan in the car no signal iam in the cantenar. Iam no jokan valla." It was written by Ahmed, an Afghan boy of about 7, trying to say: "I need help. The driver won't stop the car. No oxygen in the car. No signal. I'm in a container. I am not joking. I swear to God."

In March, Clegg and others volunteering at a squalid migrant camp in Calais, France, had handed out hundreds of basic cellphones to children living there, programming in a number for them to text in a crisis.

She knew Ahmed wouldn't text something like that if he wasn't in danger. So she called Tanya Freedman, from the Help Refugees charity in London, to tell her the boy seemed to be suffocating.

[2naSalit]

1. Yikes!

[myrna minx]

2. Speechless.

[allan01]

3. this is the face of human trafficing

[JimDandy]

4. What a marvelous idea to give cell phones to children in highly trafficked populations.

Real solutions for horrific problems. Now that's how you Save The Children!

[WhiteTara]

6. Yes, it resulted in a happy ending.

That the woman who handed the phones out realized that no child would fake such a call is to her credit.

[SoapBox]

5. Oh my gosh.

Thank goodness for that cell.