A teenager rescued from the Calais Jungle has claimed his love for Britain is still strong despite the spate of high-profile hate crimes since he arrived last year.

In October 2016 refugee Aemal Khan, 15, disembarked in Croydon and was reunited with his brother after spending months stranded in the French migrant camp.

He had travelled thousands of miles, often on foot, to end up in his brother's Hounslow home and is now focusing on his education.

He told the Press Association: "When we're on holiday I feel not good, I like college and I like going to college - I like to improve my English.”

However, while the Afghan native has spent the past six months exploring UK culture and improving his cricket skill, other refugees have not been so lucky.

This month in Croydon a Kurdish Iranian asylum seeker was this month viciously beaten within an inch of his life in an alleged racist gang attack.

See related: Five people charged with over attack on teenage asylum seeker in Shrubland Avenue, Shirley

Three quarters of police forces in England and Wales have a spike in hate crimes in the wake of the Brexit vote.  

But this is not how the teenager sees the UK.

Speaking through his brother Asif, 26, who was also a resident of Calais's notorious migrant community, he said: "If you are a refugee here we've been accepted by UK people - that's why we're here - this kind of reaction when they take against us, what will they say?

"There's not five fingers that are the same, in refugees there are a lot of bad people, so we can't imagine the British people are like this - there is one person doing the bad things."

"In the UK I've never heard 'I'm a refugee' from anyone else, so here we think of others as equals, that we are the same.

"There is no difference between me or someone else, so that is why the people of the UK are great people."

Asif, a chef who fled their war-ravaged homeland 11 years previously, added: "It wasn't just him, it was a lot of children who came from Calais and the people of England, the Government of England were welcoming to them, so we really appreciate that."

Aemal was transferred from the Jungle days before it was torn down to Britain under a Government fast-track scheme designed to protect vulnerable young people.

Life in Calais was difficult for the 15-year-old.

He said: "You want to stay in the queue to get food, so you had to stand around for nearly one hour in the queue to get food.

"There was the difficulties of nights, to eat there, sleep there, so there was always difficulties."

"When you pass the difficult times, you can never forget it, but the thing is I'm here with a lot of friends."

He lost contact with boys he lived with during those months until a visit to the Home Office in Croydon last month, when he saw three friends.

He said: "I was so happy when I met them, I was so happy to see them there, they were three friends and we had a lot of difficulties together."

Since October, Aemal has visited tourist sites ranging from Buckingham Palace to Tower Bridge, developed a taste for fish and chips and an interest in scary movies.

He enlisted for college, where he recently received a certificate for excellent performance on his Esol (English for Speakers of Other Languages) course.

Aemal said he likes England but the weather is "not good".

"I enjoy it in England, but the weather is not good in England," he said.

Under European legislation known as Dublin III, Aemal is able switch his asylum claim to Britain due to his family connection to the country.