Refugee allowed to stay in UK sneaks relatives in — and judge praises her!
A FORMER asylum seeker used her family’s new British passports to bring two relatives from Yemen into the UK illegally, a court heard.
But Somalia-born Hana Abdi Qahtan, who could have faced 14 years imprisonment, walked free with a suspended sentence and community service after the judge praised her ‘humanitarian desire’.
Her two relatives, who were caught by at Heathrow, have now been granted asylum so they can remain in this country.
Isleworth Crown Court heard that the 46year-old part-time carer from Manor Park, east London, applied for asylum in the UK in 2006 after arriving from war-torn Yemen, and became a British citizen in 2013. She was also given passports for her children and her mother.
But when an aunt asked for help to get her 16-year-old son, Mohammed Nouman, into Britain, Qahtan agreed and travelled to Bahrain. On their return to Heathrow in September last year, Mohammed brandished Qahtan’s son’s passport, but was stopped by immigration officials as he did not look like the photo and their story quickly fell apart.
The court heard she also had her mother’s passport hidden in her hijab, which officials believe she was going to give to a woman in the immigration queue to gain access to the country. Her relationship to the woman, said to be distant, was not revealed and the
‘Humanitarian desire to assist’
charge was left on file. After Qahtan pleaded guilty to facilitating a breach of immigration, Judge Sarah Paneth told her: ‘The offence is serious. It is an offence that attracts long sentences, and most are dealt with in that way.
‘Your aunt was the mother of a 16-year-old boy and was concerned about his welfare in Yemen. That sets out your humanitarian desire to assist him to come to this country.’
Accepting she had shown ‘genuine remorse’, Judge Paneth added: ‘Tragically your own daughter had been killed in Yemen, so you had empathy with your aunt. You fall very, very far from the sort of person who is a people smuggler.’
Qahtan was given 100 hours community service.