THE dark world of people-smuggling is explored through the eyes of a young man who fled his war-torn homeland to start a new life in Bolton.

Afghan refugee, Gulwali Passarlay, aged 20, shares his incredible story in his book, The Lightless Sky: An Afghan Refugee Boy's Journey.

It tells of his extraordinary, and often terrifying 7,150-mile journey alone, when he was sent away from Afghanistan aged just 12.

Smuggled into Iran, Gulwali began a 12-month odyssey across Europe, spending time in prisons, suffering hunger, brutality and almost drowned in a tiny boat on the Mediterranean. He finally arrived in the UK when he was 13 years old.

Gulwali was fostered by a family in Lostock, won a place at Manchester University, and was chosen to carry the Olympic torch in 2012.

In his book, he talks about being shot at by border guards during his night-time mountain crossing in Iran, travelling across the Mediterranean in a broken-down vessel with dozens of starving men.

In Greece he says he saw the insanity of a legal system which gave him six weeks to leave the country but then sentenced him to jail for three months.

In France he recalls spending the coldest day of the winter huddled in a telephone box and almost froze to death after the police kicked him out of his pitiful shelter. He spent a month in the now-notorious Calais "jungle".

Gulwali, who still lives in Bolton, said: "I was 12 years old, and there was not a day I didn’t live in fear or witness violence and man’s inhumanity to man.

"Often when I was asleep I would dream that I was back at home, teasing my cousins or listening to my mother hum softly as she folded our laundry, the house filled with the smell of freshly baked naan bread — only to wake to cold and hunger, to yet another lightless sky."

To book gives an insight into the the world of people smuggling, from the wealthy individuals who control the chain to the myriad of fixers and individuals along the the journey who transport and shelter them, selling, he says "thin hopes and fat lies" to the desperate.

Gulwali, who is studying politics and international relations, said: "I want people to at least consider my story and the stories of those I met along the way —and know what they have overcome and what they are running against. Many survive the journey, only to live in poverty and discomfort at the fringes of society.

"Only a very few, like myself, found success in their adopted countries."

After Gulwali's survival against all odds he has immersed himself in a bid to give something back — he is an ambassador and advisor to youth groups and fast becoming a key spokesperson for refugees in Britain.

The Lightless Sky is published by Atlantic in hardback priced £18.99