CRIME WAVE

A failed asylum seeker who committed 26 crimes within six years of arriving in the UK could win damages after a judge ruled that he had been unlawfully detained by immigration authorities. Deputy High Court Judge John Howell QC said Amin Sino from Algeria had ‘frustrated’ Home Office deportation attempts and been assessed as a ‘risk to the community’. And he accepted that many people might be ‘outraged’ that ‘such an individual’ may be entitled to damages - which would come from public funds.

But the judge said, in a written ruling published today after a hearing in London, that an immigrant's failure to co-operate with immigration officials was not a justification for detention. Mr Sino had sought a High Court review of the Home Office's decision to detain him five years ago. He argued that he had been unlawfully detained and claimed damages. The judge said his attempts to determine ‘basic facts’ in the case had ‘not been assisted’ by Home Office evidence which contained ‘false and misleading statements’.

He said the ‘degree of care’ given to the preparation of some statements filed on behalf of the Home Secretary gave him ‘considerable concern’. And he said the ‘sorry saga’ appeared to reveal a ‘disturbing level of incompetent ignorance’ in one Home Office team. The judge said it was ‘common ground’ that Mr Sino was Algerian but said his name, age, place of birth and movements before arriving in the UK were all in dispute. Mr Sino had claimed asylum in 2001 but his claim was refused, and appeal dismissed, after he failed to appear for hearings, the judge said.

Over the next six years, when he was thought to have been sleeping rough in London, he was convicted of shoplifting, theft, handling stolen goods and drug possession, the court heard. The judge said, "An immigration tribunal calculated that during the five-and-a-half-year period after his arrival in this country, he received 17 convictions for 26 offences with custodial sentences and that he had spent 38 months in prison. The overall effect of his offending indicated that he was a risk to the community."

Mr Sino had been detained by immigration authorities at the end of a prison sentence in 2006, pending deportation. But, since then, Home Office officials had been unable to obtain necessary travel documents from Algerian authorities which would have enabled him to be deported to Algeria. Mr Sino argued that Home Office officials had ‘no lawful authority’ to detain him because there had ‘never been a realistic prospect’ of them obtaining necessary Algerian documentation. The Home Office argued that had Mr Sino been freed he would have been ‘likely to abscond and to re-offend’.

Officials also said the ‘inadequate and misleading’ information Mr Sino provided about his identity were in ‘significant part’ the cause of the difficulties in obtaining travel documents. The judge concluded that the Home Office had not shown that there was ‘any realistic prospect’ of obtaining necessary documentation. Between 2006 and 2008, ministers had also be influenced by an ‘unlawful’ policy which decreed that foreign prisoners should be deported regardless of the risk they posed and regardless of whether there was a reasonable prospect of deporting them within a reasonable period, he said.

The judge said, "It follows that Mr Sino is at least prima facie entitled to damages which are more than nominal. Many people may well be very concerned that an individual, who is the subject of a deportation order that was made because his removal would be conducive to the public good, has been able to frustrate his deportation by deliberately not co-operating with the Secretary of State for more than five years. They may well be outraged that such an individual may be entitled to any substantial damages for being detained because he was evidently determined to frustrate any efforts to remove him and the Secretary of State could not arrange his removal without his assistance."

He added, "Nonetheless, however unattractive in the circumstances this claim for damages for the loss of his liberty may be, an individual's failure to co-operate with the Secretary of State in facilitating his removal is not a justification in itself for any immigration detention. Such an individual's failure to co-operate without reasonable excuse renders him liable on conviction on indictment to up to 12 months' imprisonment. Immigration detention may only be justified if there is a realistic prospect of removing an individual within a reasonable period taking into account his failure to co-operate. In this case, there was no such prospect. Mr Sino is accordingly entitled at least prima facie to damages for false imprisonment, which are more than nominal, to be assessed." (Source: Daily Mail, Aug/11)

The row over Britain's asylum policies took a new twist when Britain's most senior police officer claimed mass immigration has created a 'whole new range of crimes' threatening to overwhelm towns and cities across the country. In comments which will spark a debate about whether genuine asylum seekers are being used as a cover for criminal gangs, Chris Fox, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), said the mass movement of people around the world had brought new levels of organised crime, with drug dealing, gun offences, prostitution and kidnapping.

Claiming the numbers of asylum seekers coming to Britain had reached 'tidal wave' proportions, Mr Fox said, "Mass migration has brought with it a whole new range and a whole new type of crime, from the Nigerian fraudster, to the eastern European who deals in drugs and prostitution to the Jamaican concentration on drug dealing. Add to that the home grown criminals and we have a whole different family of people who are competing to be in the organised crime world."

He added, "The mass movement of people has made it worse. It is accepted that if people do move for security, safety and to avoid terror, among them there will be people who aren't moving for those purposes. Similarly, gangs see a chance to earn money by moving people and getting people into countries without going through all the checks. This mass movement brings with it the opportunity for criminals to move and to make money."

Fox's comments on immigration, which will again put asylum at the top of the political agenda, echo those of a report by the influential House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee. In an investigation into asylum published earlier, the committee said the large number of asylum seekers entering the country was threatening 'social unrest' and had to be curbed. "Every time you get a new group you get more tension," said Mr Fox, who is chief constable of Northamptonshire.

He continued, "The eastern European, Afghanistan, Middle Eastern movement has had the most effect, it is such large numbers of people. If you think of where we were with asylum seekers two years ago, if you look at Sangatte the Red Cross base near Calais which was a gathering point for British-bound refugees and the movement there, it reached a high level, a tidal wave." (Source: The Observer)