Asylum Fiasco
BRITAIN’S asylum system descended further into chaos yesterday after a plane-load of Iraqis was turned away at Baghdad – and sent back to Britain.
The shaming return of the £250,000 taxpayer-funded flight highlighted the Government’s incompetence in tackling illegal immigration. And it prompted calls for reforms to stop more bogus migrants breaching our borders.
Paul Nuttall, chairman of the UK Independence Party, said: “People around the world must be laughing at us. The simple fact is that if we want to stop this sort of expensive chaos repeating then we have to make it harder for migrants to enter.”
Tory immigration spokesman Damian Green said: “This is pretty incompetent. If British taxpayers’ money is spent on these flights, then the Government should know in advance that no one will be sent back to Britain. Ministers need to provide a proper explanation.”
The latest fiasco came when a Government-chartered aircraft set off from Stansted in Essex carrying 40 failed asylum seekers. It landed in the Iraqi capital on Thursday.
The Baghdad authorities allowed only a few refugees off the plane and then blocked re-entry for the rest.
The remaining Iraqis were sent on a five-and-a-half hour return flight to Britain where they were locked up at a detention centre at Gatwick yesterday while Home Office officials tried to sort out the diplomatic wrangle. A source said if the dispute cannot be resolved, it was likely the bogus migrants will have to remain in the UK.
A Home Office spokesman said it was working with the Iraqi government to avoid a repeat of this embarrassing first mass airlift of failed asylum seekers to Baghdad.
He declined to explain why the Iraqi officials blocked entry but witnesses claimed it was because UK Border Agency staff had forgotten to make provision to take the migrants from Baghdad to Basra.
A spokeswoman for the human rights group Refugee and Migrant Justice attacked the Government’s blundering.
She said: “One would have expected with such a high-profile remove, the Home Office would have sorted this out with the Iraqi authorities. For such a high-profile group to be returned is unprecedented.”
Mark Wallace, of campaign group the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “This was a costly farce that taxpayers can ill afford. It’s ridiculous that the Government can’t even deport people successfully.
“Ironically, it seems that the Iraqi immigration service have somewhat stricter standards than our own failing agencies.”
Lin Homer, chief executive of the UK Border Agency, said: “We are establishing a new route to southern Iraq and have successfully returned 10 Iraqis to the Baghdad area.
“This is an important first step for us.
“We are working closely with the Iraq government to iron out the issues which led to some of the returnees being sent back, and expect to carry out another flight in the future.”
