Priti: Our asylum merry-go-round ( so when will she act? )
THE Liverpool hospital bomber exploited the UK’s asylum ‘merry-go-round’, Priti Patel said last night.
Emad Al Swealmeen, 32, lost his bid to stay in Britain in 2014 but still had an appeal outstanding when he blew himself up on Sunday.
The appeal meant the Home Office was unable to deport him in the intervening seven years.
Pledging to overhaul the asylum system, Home Secretary Miss Patel declared: ‘The case in Liverpool was a complete reflection of how dysfunctional the system has been in the past, and why I want to bring changes forward.
‘It’s a complete merry-go-round and it’s been exploited by a whole professional legal services industry which has based itself on rights of appeal, going to the courts day in day out, on legal aid at the expense of the taxpayers.’
More than 1,000 migrants are thought to have crossed to Britain in small boats yesterday. Traffickers were seen leading hopefuls carrying dinghies at first light without a French patrol in sight.
Hundreds began arriving on the Kent coast from 8am, with boatloads going into the evening.
With investigators yet to find any evidence that the bomber had terror links:
One theory is that frustration over his asylum battle resulted in a mental health crisis;
But sources said no one raised the alarm about his behaviour;
Detectives have determined that he did not use triacetone triperoxide, an explosive known as ‘Mother of Satan’;
Friends revealed the would-be pizza chef was so car-mad that he nicknamed himself ‘GT’ – for ‘gran turismo’ – and was obsessed with the singer Johnny Cash;
Police released without charge four men in their 20s who were arrested under terrorism laws following Sunday’s attack.
The revelations about how Al Swealmeen was able to remain in the UK raise serious concerns over flaws in the asylum process that can undermine national security.
A former minister said the case strengthened the Government’s argument for tearing up the Human Rights Act to make it easier to deport failed asylum seekers.
‘This looks like an awful example of what happens when bogus asylum seekers are not sent back and their minds turn to terror,’ said Tory MP Sir John Hayes.
‘Who knows what other horrors we are importing with this broken system?’ He said the Act allowed ‘people, aided and abetted by fat cat legal aid lawyers and bleeding heart liberals, to delay proceedings with spurious claims for years’.
Migration Watch UK, which campaigns for tougher border controls, said the case could be the ‘tip of the iceberg’. Alp Mehmet, the group’s chairman, added: ‘It points to the dysfunctional depths into which our shattered asylum system has sunk. Why this person was not removed or detained having been denied asylum is utterly baffling. We need to know.’
Al Swealmeen is understood to have moved legally to the UK in 2014 from Dubai.
That year his initial asylum application was turned down. It is understood his claim was ‘not compliant’ with Home Office rules. But he lodged appeals against the ministry’s decisions to deny him refugee status.
In 2015 he was baptised as a Christian. Al Swealmeen, who changed his name to Enzo Almeni, made a fresh asylum application in 2017 but this was rejected.