Knee jerk reaction to single incidents make for bad law. And it isn't necessary. We already know we aren't responsible for France's immigrants and don't wish to accept any. Their deliberately arranged/created problem, they should sort it out internally.
France and the rest of the EU have got in a real mess over all of this but I can't see how this could have been dealt with differently. If it were to happen tomorrow ould we send him back to France?- I am not sure they would accept him (ironic after they were happy for him to make his way to Calais). But it's not easy for EU either - should they have shipped him off back to Sudan and just dropped him on their coast?
Do any EU countries lie next to Sudan ? I don't think so. I'd suspect the issue isn't to send him there but back to wherever he entered the EU from. Authorities make it more difficult than it need be.
Cases like this give valuable experience to our chronically underworked mental health services, courts and prisons.
We should be grateful that yet another highly motivated arrivee on our island is able and willing to provide opportunities for staff to gain valuable experience.
UK citizens will benefit in the long run, once the rest of the world's underprivileged are sorted out.
>should they have shipped him off back to Sudan
That's fine if Sudan will take him, but the problems is when they have no papers, we do not know or cannot prove where they came from, Sudan won't take them or they are classed as genuine refugees- unless someone can unpick all the accepted principles across Europe and the world about refugees fleeing war zones etc. The problem is of course that things are too often not as simple as "send em back" even though we all agree it should be done much more often.