He added: “He was asked how he had got into the tunnel and he said “I came from France, always trying to get here”.
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Haroun was recognised as a refugee and granted asylum on Christmas Eve.
He was charged under the obscure Malicious Damages Act 1861, specifically section 36, with obstructing engines or carriages on a railway, punishable by up to two years in prison.
He was arrested emerging from the railway tunnel after walking 50km from France in near total darkness, clinging to metal brackets on the tunnel walls to dodge passing trains.
Immigration is now one of the main issues in Thursday’s referendum on whether Britain should leave the European Union.
Haroun was granted asylum on Christmas day (Dec 25) past year, a decision that received criticism for appearing as an “incentive to other illegal immigrants to seek to enter the country”, said Eurotunnel spokesman John Keefe.
He is due to enter a plea at Canterbury Crown Court in front of Judge Adele Williams.
“His priority now is to focus on rebuilding his life in the United Kingdom”, his lawyer Sadie Castle told reporters after sentencing.
When he reached Calais, supporters of Mr Haroun said he “climbed four fences, avoided 400 security cameras” and walked more than 30 miles underground from Calais to England.
Sky News reported that the judge acknowledged Haroun had been in a “state of desperation”.
He walked 7km to the police station in the town every Wednesday to meet his bail terms, the court heard.
“You caused enormous inconvenience to a large number of people”.
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“Disrupting the operation of the Channel Tunnel in this way is a very serious offence which will nearly always result in an immediate sentence of imprisonment”.
