The questionable characters we HAVE provided with sanctuary

Jet hijackers: Nine Afghans who hijacked a plane at gunpoint in their homeland in 2000 – ordering it to be diverted to Stansted Airport – won refuge in the UK.

After being freed from jail on appeal in 2003, they gained full leave to remain and claim benefits. Incredibly, one was later found working as a cleaner at Heathrow.

Abu Qatada: Once regarded as Osama Bin Laden’s top man in the UK, the extremist cleric was granted asylum in 1994 after arriving on a false passport. During an eight-year deportation farce, costing taxpayers more than £2million, he used human rights laws to delay his removal to Jordan until 2013.

Parsons Green bomber: Ahmed Hassan – who injured 23 passengers trying to blow up a District Line train – lied to immigration officials in 2015 that he was a 16year-old orphan who had been trained to kill by Islamic State in Iraq. He was jailed for 34 years over the attack last September.

Serbian paramilitary: Dejan Tolic’s 1999 asylum application was refused after he admitted being a member of the White Eagles, a Serbian paramilitary group linked to atrocities in the Yugoslav wars. However, he was allowed to remain on human rights grounds. African ‘war criminal’: Joseph Lissa was branded a war criminal after being accused of raping and killing enemies during Sierra Leone’s civil war. He won the right to stay after fathering a child here.