Somalian boy is refused asylum in Sweden and we get a bill for his keep
FURY erupted yesterday over a failed Somalian asylum seeker who was caught using another person’s passport at Heathrow as he tried to fly to Canada.
The 17-year-old faced being booted out of Sweden but British taxpayers will now have to foot the bill to feed and clothe him in a Young Offenders’ Institution for three months.
For the past two-and-a-half years the Somalian-born youth was living in Sweden, but had his asylum application to stay there permanently refused.
The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, faced being deported back to Somalia when he turned 18 later this year.
Expensive
He claims he fled his country of birth after deserting from the army and had hoped to get to Canada to make a new asylum application.
But at the boarding gate inside Heathrow’s Terminal 2 on January 8, an Air Canada security worker who specialises in facial recognition spotted he was not travelling on his own passport and alerted police.
He pleaded guilty last month to possession of controlled identity documents with intent. Yesterday he was sentenced to six months inside a Young
‘ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS’ FOUND IN CHILLER LORRY AT SERVICES
Offenders’ Institution when he appeared before Ealing Youth Court in west London.
The youth, who has been living in a council-run centre for unaccompanied child migrants in Hillingdon, will serve three months in detention and then three months on licence.
He may apply for asylum on his release.
Critics last night said the case sums up Britain’s asylum madness with taxpayers once again picking up the tab.
John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “It’s encouraging that this person was caught whilst trying NINE suspected illegal immigrants were found hiding in the back of a refrigerated lorry yesterday.
Bedfordshire Police found six adults and three children hiding among chilled cargo at Toddington services on the M1.
They were taken to hospital before being handed over to immigration enforcement officers. Their nationalities are not yet known.
It is thought the truck had travelled to the UK from Europe by ferry.
Toddington has become a hotbed of migrant activity in recent years because it is often the first services used by long-distance lorry drivers for a break after arriving in Britain through Dover. By law drivers must take a break of at least 45 minutes after driving for four-and-a-half hours in one stretch. to use a fake passport, but taxpayers will be disappointed that they will have to pay to process this claim.
“Hopefully the deportation will be swift, smooth and there won’t be any expensive delays as happens so frequently.”
Tory MP Philip Davies said: “This young man should be kicked out of the country at the first opportunity.
“That means days and hours – not months.
“Clearly we have been identified as a soft touch.”
At the youth court, Roy Pershad, prosecuting, said the defendant had a passport “in someone else’s name” at the boarding gate but it was not clear whether it had been used to get into the UK.
Ian Paul, in mitigation, told the court the youth had to join the government army because his father was “part of a rebel group” in Somalia.
He added: “After having served there for a brief while he left and travelled to Sweden two-and-a-half years ago.”
When magistrates asked the youth what he thought about a custody sentence, he said: “It will bring me more difficulties.”