Bureaucracy triumphant in a new height of British insanity
Asylum seeker who keeps trying to return to Morocco sues Britain for STOPPING him
A failed asylum seeker is suing the UK Border Agency for locking him up for five years – even though all he wanted to do was go home to Morocco. In an extraordinary case that exposes the immigration system to ridicule, Rashid Ali is seeking a six-figure compensation payout after being detained following his six attempts to stow away on ships leaving Britain.
Although UKBA has spent five years trying to deport him, officers did not want him to be freed from detention in case he escaped Britain illegally. [Why?]
Now the 32-year-old has gone to the High Court for compensation after being freed on bail from the detention centre – where his stay was costing taxpayers £100 a night. The Moroccan has been given a room in a shared house in Ilford, East London, and food vouchers worth £140 a month pending a court hearing to determine whether he should receive damages. His prolonged detention has already cost taxpayers more than £360,000.
Ali said: ‘I am not a murderer. I am not a rapist or a paedophile; I am a simple man who only wanted to go home. They should not have locked me up. It has cost British taxpayers all this money to keep me locked up because I didn’t want to stay in this country. ‘They want to deport me but I should have just been free to make my own way. I know other people have got £100,000 from the Government for three years’ detention. ‘I should get hundreds of thousands of pounds of compensation for being locked up for this long.’
Dreaming of a better life, Ali came to Britain in 2000 at the age of 21 by hiding on a cargo ship from France. However, he became an alcoholic after working at a bar in Bristol and, when his claim for asylum was turned down, decided to try to find a passage home to Morocco. The first ship kicked him off at Milford Haven in South Wales in November 2004. Several stowaway attempts followed and the furthest Ali got was Ireland.
On his fifth attempt in June 2005 he was found aboard a Russian ship and sent back to Avonmouth, where he stole some food and a coat to keep warm.
He was jailed for nine months by a North Somerset magistrate who ordered he be deported after serving the sentence. On his release, he was sent to a detention centre for three years, despite constant pleas to go home.
In October 2008 he was offered a flat in Newcastle amid fears that he could seriously injure or kill himself hiding on vessels. But two days later he was found hiding on another boat leaving Bristol. He was charged with stealing a mobile phone and jacket and damaging a door, which he admitted.
When he appeared at Bristol Crown Court in December, a judge called for an inquiry into the fiasco. Judge Michael Hubbard, QC, said: ‘The sooner he gets back to Morocco, the better for everybody. ‘It beggars belief that during that time in detention it wasn’t sorted out for him to return home.’
He was held at Colnbrook Removal Centre, near Heathrow, until four months ago when, despite objections, he was freed at an asylum and immigration tribunal.
The UK Border Agency says it has been unable to deport him as he has refused to provide a passport or any identity papers. However, Ali says he has never had any papers.
Yesterday Migrationwatch UK chairman Sir Andrew Green said: ‘Words fail me. Alice in Wonderland describes this case. ‘Surely ... the best thing would be to turn a blind eye and just let him go home under his own steam.’
Jonathan Sedgwick, deputy chief executive of UKBA, said: ‘We will rigorously defend this challenge. ‘Mr Ali’s continued presence in the UK is a frustrating situation, caused by his own failure to provide appropriate evidence, which would allow him to be returned. ‘We believe that those who break the law have no right to be here, and we are doing everything we can to remove them from the UK.’
A TaxPayers’ Alliance spokesman described the case as ‘farcical’.
SOURCE
Greece wants fence along border with Turkey
Greece plans to build a fence along its border with Turkey in a bid to keep out illegal immigrants, Citizen Protection Minister Christos Papoutsis said yesterday.
“Cooperation with the other EU states is going well. ... Now, we plan to construct a fence to deal with illegal migration,” he told the semi-official Athens News Agency ANA.
In the six months up to the end of November, 33,000 illegal immigrants were detected crossing the Greek-Turkish land border. Most were from Afghanistan, Algeria, Pakistan, Somalia or Iraq.
Papoutsis said the 128-mile-long fence would be like the one the United States erected along its border with Mexico.
Since November, European Union teams have been patrolling the border with Greek police.
Currently, there are an estimated 300,000 people living illegally in Greece.
SOURCE
Background
Postings from Brisbane, Australia by John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.) -- former member of the Australia-Soviet Friendship Society, former anarcho-capitalist and former member of the British Conservative party.
Why is "La Raza" the one Spanish term that is NEVER translated in the American mass media? Because translating it would make it a lot less respectable. It means "THE RACE" -- The mixed Hispanic "race" of Mexico. Racism is fine South of the Rio Grande only, apparently.
The "line" of this blog is that immigration should be SELECTIVE. That means that:
1). A national government should be in control of it. The U.S. and U.K. governments are not but the Australian government has shown that the government of a prosperous Western country can be. Up until its loss of office in 2007, the conservative Howard government had all but eliminated illegal immigration. The present Leftist government has however restarted the flow of illegals by repealing many of the Howard government regulations.
2). Selectivity should be based on "the content of a man's character, not on the color of his skin", as MLK said. To expand that a little: Immigrants should only be accepted if they as individuals seem likely to make a positive net contribution to the country. Many "refugees" would fail that test: Muslims and Africans particularly. Educational level should usually be a pretty fair proxy for the individual's likely value to the receiving country. There will, of course, be exceptions but it is nonetheless unlikely that a person who has not successfully completed High School will make a net positive contribution to a modern Western society.
3). Immigrants should be neither barred NOR ACCEPTED solely because they are of some particular ethnic origin. Blacks are vastly more likely to be criminal than are whites or Chinese, for instance, but some whites and some Chinese are criminal. It is the criminality that should matter, not the race.
4). The above ideas are not particularly blue-sky. They roughly describe the policies of the country where I live -- Australia. I am critical of Australian policy only insofar as the "refugee" category for admission is concerned. All governments have tended to admit as refugees many undesirables. It seems to me that more should be required of them before refugees are admitted -- for instance a higher level of education or a business background.
5). Perhaps the most amusing assertion in the immigration debate is that high-income countries like the USA and Britain NEED illegal immigrants to do low-paid menial work. "Who will pick our crops?" (etc.) is the cry. How odd it is then that Australians get all the normal services of a modern economy WITHOUT illegal immigrants! Yes: Before the pandemic, you usually COULD buy a lettuce in Australia for a dollar or thereabouts. And Australia IS a major exporter of primary products.
6). I am a libertarian conservative so I reject the "open door" policy favoured by many libertarians and many Leftists. Both those groups tend to have a love of simplistic generalizations that fail to deal with the complexity of the real world. It seems to me that if a person has the right to say whom he/she will have living with him/her in his/her own house, so a nation has the right to admit to living among them only those individuals whom they choose.
I can be reached on jonjayray@hotmail.com -- or leave a comment on any post. Abusive comments will be deleted.
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