Illegal immigrant who pleaded to be deported after jail sentence is still being held in UK after FOUR YEARS

Some prize British bureaucracy

An illegal immigrant jailed for theft begged to leave Britain, but is still being held four years after it was ruled he should be deported.

Raki Munir was detained in January 2007 having served a one-year sentence – but because the Home Office can’t prove his nationality, it can’t send him home. It costs the taxpayer £119 a day to keep him here, or nearly £200,000 over four years, which is more expensive than detaining someone on a life sentence.

Munir, who is being held at Harmondsworth detention centre in London, told The Sun: ‘I want to go home. I have been in six centres the past four years. It is not good for me and not good for the British people.’

Munir arrived in Britain on a false French passport, eventually revealing that he is Palestinian and wants to return to the Middle East. But he has no ID papers, which the UK Border Agency says it needs to send him there.

A spokesman for the agency told MailOnline: 'This individual has been non-compliant in providing us with his true nationality and has looked to frustrate the removals system at every turn

'Detention is a vital part of our immigration system, ensuring that foreign criminals, who pose a threat to public safety and those who are here illegally, are removed from the country.

'We only ever detain someone as a last resort and for no longer than is necessary. However, where they deliberately give false, misleading or incomplete information, they inevitably delay their return and extend their detention. They have to take responsibility for that.'

His case is similar to that of 33-year-old Rashid Ali. He 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 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.

Now he 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 was 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 hundreds of thousands of pounds.

SOURCE





Two minutes with Rick Scott on immigration

Asked if Florida should pass an immigration-enforcement law like Georgia’s recently approved H.B. 87, Gov. Rick Scott says the federal government needs to do its job: Secure the border, implement a national immigration policy and create a work visa program that actually works.

Scott tells Hispolitica that if you’re in Florida and you’re stopped by law enforcement, officers should be able to ask for your immigration status. In its latest session, the Florida Legislature failed to pass immigration-enforcement bills that would have allowed local law enforcement to do just that.

Scott adds that immigration reform must be fair and avoid racial profiling, and he comments about his experience using E-Verify, a federal program that allows companies to discover if a job applicant is authorized to work in the U.S. Asked if he supports state and national E-Verify, Scott says we need something that is fair.

One of Rick Scott’s first acts as governor was to sign an executive order requiring that all state agencies — and all companies that enter into contracts with state agencies — use E-Verify to check the employment elligibility of their workers.

Georgia’s H.B. 87, effective July 1, includes provisions that mandate E-Verify; the measure is opposed by the Georgia Farm Bureau. A federal judge this week granted a preliminary injunction against key provisions of the law that would allow police to investigate the immigration status of certain suspects and a measure punishing those who knowingly harbor illegal immigrants.

A federal bill filed by Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, would mandate E-Verify nationwide. It is currently moving through the U.S. House of Representative, but has also earned the opposition of many business organizations. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is cosponsoring the Senate version that also calls for mandatory E-Verify.

Scott says he recognizes that Hispanic voters were important for his election and he has made a point to address their issues: education, jobs and housing. But in Florida immigration reform bills have divided GOP legislators, especially South Florida Hispanic Republicans.

SOURCE