Migrants Given Asylum Despite Being Accused of Sexual Offences, Whistleblower Says

ER Editor: There’s been ongoing emphasis in the news on the sexual offences of migrants. We also have yet ANOTHER story on a migrant being incorrectly and improbably released from a UK jail (here’s the first), which also has the sexual aspect coming into play —

Released by Mistake: Another Sex Offender on the Run in London

A 24-year-old Algerian prisoner was mistakenly released from Wandsworth prison in south London on October 29th, the Prison Service has confirmed. The Metropolitan Police said they were only notified of the error nearly a week later, on Tuesday, November 4th.

“Officers are conducting an urgent investigation to locate the man and return him to custody,” a police spokesperson said.

The inmate had been serving a sentence for burglary with intent to steal, but was also known to have previous convictions for sexual offences.

The blunder occurred just five days after the release of Hadush Kebatu, a migrant sex offender whose case sparked national outrage, and two days after Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary David Lammy announced tighter checks on prisoner releases.

The Sky News report linked to above reveals that not one but TWO prisoners were mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth, one of them being a registered sex offender.

Here’s a whistleblower, admitting several things, including that the UK Home Office is ‘not fit for purpose’.

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Migrants Given Asylum Despite Being Accused of Sexual Offences, Whistleblower Says

WILL JONES for DAILY SCEPTIC

Migrants who have been accused of multiple sex offences and other crimes are being granted asylum anyway, a whistleblower has said, with targets incentivising caseworkers to approve claims. The Telegraph has the story.

A senior caseworker has told the Telegraph that Home Office staff can approve claims from asylum seekers charged with crimes, as long as the offence for which they are being prosecuted does not merit a prison sentence of 12 months or more. (ER: We wonder what the yardstick is for sex crime sentencing both below and above 12 months …)

She cited a case where she said she was disciplined after refusing to approve an Afghan man’s application because he had been arrested several times for indecently exposing himself in a children’s play area.

The caseworker, whom we are not naming to protect her identity, decided to speak out because she believed migrants were being allowed to remain in the UK when they should be deported.

She alleged caseworkers were under pressure to hit targets that incentivised them to approve more claims, and that applications from some countries, such as Eritrea and Sudan, were fast-tracked with less scrutiny than those from other nations.

She said even when asylum seekers’ applications were rejected by immigration tribunals, migrants could still make “further submissions”, often introducing new evidence such as psychiatric, sexual or religious claims, which delayed or prevented their deportation.

The whistleblower said: “It’s a carousel, just going round and round and round. We’re just browbeaten. That’s how we feel in asylum. We feel browbeaten because we read in the press that we’re rubbish. It’s not us. The ones at the coalface are doing the best we possibly can. We’re in a lose-lose [situation].”

Her comments come ahead of a major shake-up of the asylum system to be announced by Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary. She will toughen rules on criminality, curb the rights of asylum seekers to appeal against refusals on human rights grounds and overhaul the asylum appeals system.

Ms Mahmood, who has admitted the Home Office is “not yet fit for purpose”, has pledged to do whatever it takes to secure the UK’s borders and deport migrants with no right to stay in the UK. She plans to strip all migrants with convictions for sexual offences of the right to claim asylum.