Husham Alzubair: Refugee who died riding freight train through Channel Tunnel 'may have been pushed to his death'

Family say they still have unanswered questions about how the 22-year-old died

The men allegedly walked 31 miles through the tunnel from Calais to Folkestone, Kent (EPA)

A young Sudanese man who sustained devastating head injuries as he attempted to get into the UK by riding a freight train through the Channel Tunnel may have been pushed to his death, his family have claimed.

Husham Alzubair, 22, who had hoped to join his family in Birmingham and start a new life in Britain, was found lying on the rear wagon of the train as it arrived in Folkestone, Kent, in July. He was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.

An inquest into his death heard that the Darfur-born graduate had hoped to enrol on a civil engineering Masters course in the UK after leaving his home village near Khartoum earlier this year and travelling to Calais in France.

But after coroner Rachel Redman returned a verdict of accidental death, Mr Alzubair’s cousin Alnoor Shuaib, 32, said the family still had unanswered questions about how he died. “Maybe someone pushed him, we don’t know. We have not got any evidence, and that is a real surprise to me,” he said.

On the night that Mr Alzubair died, a large number of migrants had tried to breach the Channel Tunnel’s security, with 46 being detained by police, the inquest at Folkestone Magistrates’ Court heard.

Police investigating Mr Alzubair’s death found a picture of a Barclaycard on his phone, which led them to his brother, Husam, who lives in Birmingham. A post-mortem examination confirmed his cause of death was traumatic haemorrhage skull fracture, but police remain unsure what caused the injuries.

“We have no information to help answer that question,” Detective Sergeant Matthew Jones of Kent Police told the inquest. “Our best guess would be that during the period that clandestines were running along the train and jumping on, we suspect when he jumped on he received that injury, but we have no CCTV or witnesses to confirm that.”

Data from Mr Alzubair’s mobile phone SIM card showed that he made a final call to an unknown person at 2.50am. Around 13 minutes later he was spotted on the back of the train on CCTV, but no footage was found of him actually boarding the train. According to toxicology reports, no alcohol or drugs were found in his body.

“He was clearly able to get access to the secure area and access the train,” Ms Redman said. “At some point when he got on the train he suffered a massive head injury.”

Mr Alzubair’s brother Husam, who has been studying legally in Britain for a year, said the family was “not happy” that they still did not know exactly how he died. “My brother was quiet, he was kind, he was a respectable person. He was very clever and from primary school through to university he always got excellent grades,” he told a local newspaper earlier this year. “It was his dream to come to England.