Smko’s a man on a mission

Smko Mahmod with Tracey Holmes, from the Oldham Chronicle, making a donation of warm clothing from the newspaper’s staff to take to Calais

A FORMER refugee has travelled to the migrant camp in Calais to distribute donations — 12 years after he left there.

Smko Mahmod, (30) who lives in Chadderton, fled Kurdistan following the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and spent 20 days in the migrant camp. Now a British citizen and businessman, Smko accompanied religious youth organisation the Greengate Trust to deliver van loads of donated items to Calais.

The father-of three said: “I’d advertised on my barber shop Facebook page for donations and people were really generous and gave me sleeping bags, food, toothbrushes and toothpaste.

“I was going to drive down by myself when I met members of the Greengate Trust at a petrol station heading the same way, who offered to take the items. I loaded up my donations in their five vans and travelled with them.”

The father of three was only 17 when he fled Kurdistan’s political unrest, walking on foot and travelling by lorry for a month to reach Calais.

Now 30, Smko said: “In 2003, before I came to the UK, I was like them. We had no food, it was raining and we used to survive thanks to the British Red Cross who gave us bread and cheese.

“I left Kurdistan as the situation was going bad, my dad was involved in the government so it wasn’t a safe place for me to be.”

He added: “Having been there myself, I wanted to do something. I’m living happily in the UK with my three children, I have a British passport and my own business. If I didn’t do anything about their plight, it wouldn’t have been good in my heart.”