ASSAULT
Kevin Hughes is currently serving a 30 month
prison sentence in Featherstone Prison for an
alleged racially aggravated assault on an Iraqi
asylum seeker.
Despite there being no injuries, no evidence and
no witnesses the jury believed the words of a
twice failed asylum seeker who spoke in court
through an interpreter claiming he was unable to
speak any English.
Kevin is presently locked in his cell 24 hours a
day, apart from visits, for his own protection
following a vicious attempt to attack and injure
him.
An unprovoked attack by a gang of Black and Asian
inmates was thwarted by quick acting prison
officers who managed to free Kevin and escort him
back to his cell.
Why the ringleaders of the attack gang were not
punished is a question we must ask of the prison
authorities. (Source: BNP, Jul/06) |
|
|
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)
|
|
|