Fleeing man ‘clung on to security light’

AN IMMIGRATION officer described how he saw an asylum seeker clinging to the security light of a warehouse as he tried to flee during a raid.

Mustafa Dawood, 23, had been refused asylum and was working illegally at the Shaftsbury car wash in Newport when he fell through the roof while fleeing from immigration officers on June 30, 2018, suffering fatal head injuries. He had arrived in the UK in 2015 and moved to Newport in 2017.

The inquest at Newport Coroners’ Court, being held before a jury, heard immigration officer Greg Williams was involved in an enforcement visit to the nearby Albany car wash on the same day. He said he volunteered to attend that Shaftsbury car wash to assist the officers there when he heard there was a “runner” over the radio.

“Mustafa was clinging onto a security light above, maybe the same height as this ceiling perhaps,” Mr Williams said. “He pulled himself up onto the roof and ran along the roof.”

Mr Williams described how he jumped back into his car and drove around the warehouse to try to find Mr Dawood. He said he did not hear officer Matthew Day, the officer in charge of the enforcement visit at the Shaftsbury car wash, say the pursuit of Mr Dawood had been abandoned. He told the inquest he was involved in the attempted resuscitation of Mr Dawood.

Mr Williams read out a previous statement to the court, which said: “Had Mustafa not run away and spoken to us he would have found out that he was not allowed to work in the UK and we would have told him to go home as he was not allowed to work and a fine would have been issued to the owner [of the car wash]. Mustafa was never going to be arrested.”

The court heard Mr Dawood’s family was very grateful for the efforts Mr Williams had made in attempting to resuscitate him.

Heidi Mayo, chief immigration officer for the immigration service, told the hearing she was in the remote role of “silver commander”, responsible for the tactics of the enforcement visit, and had signed off an operational order prior to the visit.

The inquest heard Ms Mayo received a phone call from Mr Day saying he was “concerned” as someone had climbed onto “an unstable roof at height”.

The inquest heard on Tuesday that Mr Dawood had run away from Mr Day, who believed him to be an immigration offender due to Mr Dawood’s “adverse reaction” to his presence. He said he “gave chase” after Mr Dawood but stopped his pursuit when he began to climb a shelving unit, telling him, “Come down, we can talk about this.”

Ms Mayo told the inquest: “I could see [Mr Day] was concerned on that. He’d obviously called the police to come.”

She said she escalated the situation through to a more senior “gold command” and informed a national command team.

The inquest heard the warehouse on the premises of the car wash had not been included as part of a bespoke risk assessment carried out prior to the visit.

Ms Mayo told the inquest: “I think looking back at what we know with the warehouse being open then that’s something that could have been put there. I know Matt [Mr Day] spoke to people who had previously been there as well as part of the operational order but I’m not sure whether he knew about the warehouse being linked to the car wash itself.”

She added: “I’ve been an immigration officer since 2001 and nothing like this has ever happened before.”

Theresa Gregory, lead for immigration compliance and enforcement, told the inquest: “Each officer should know that if they witnessed that person being at height the pursuit should terminate.”

The hearing continues.