CRIME WAVE

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)

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)