A Sudanese man who entered Britain after walking 31 miles through the Channel Tunnel has been granted asylum.
Abdul Rahman Haroun, 40, was granted refugee status after being found inside the tunnel near its exit at Folkestone, Kent, on August 4
He had been charged with causing an obstruction to an engine or carriage using the railway under the Malicious Damage Act 1861.
Haroun's caseworker, Sadie Castle, from Kent Defence, said he was granted asylum on Christmas Eve.
At a hearing at Canterbury Crown Court, prosecutors said they were considering whether to drop the charges in light of the decision.
Operator Eurotunnel said it was disappointed with the decision to grant asylum, as it may encourage others to attempt the same journey.
Spokesman John Keefe said: "We believe that it is something that can only act as an incentive to other illegal immigrants to seek to enter the country.
"We had hoped the authorities would use the full force of the law as a dissuasive measure."
The decision to grant asylum was criticised by Damian Collins, the Tory MP for Folkestone and Hythe.
"People who break the law should lose the right to asylum," he told the Daily Mail.
"What we want to do is send a message to those people in Calais that if you try and break into our country by hiding in vehicles or trains – or by walking through the Channel Tunnel – you will immediately lose your right to making an asylum claim in this country.
"This is completely the wrong message to send to other migrants waiting in Calais."
Haroun was released on bail until another court hearing on January 18.
Countless migrants have risked their lives trying to enter the UK via the Channel Tunnel.
The crisis in Calais became part of a wider migrant surge in to Europe from countries in north Africa and the Middle East.
As of November at least 15 migrants had died in or near the Channel Tunnel since the start of the cross-Channel migrant crisis at the beginning of last summer.
