Thread: X-ray age checks to be rapidly introduced after killer asylum seeker posed as child

X-ray age checks to be rapidly introduced after killer asylum seeker posed as child



Charles Hymas
Tue, January 24, 2023 at 5:13 AM EST





Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai - PA


X-ray age checks on migrants will be rapidly introduced to identify adults falsely claiming to be children, a Home Office minister has pledged after an Afghan double killer sneaked into Britain.

Chris Philp said the way that Afghan Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai exploited loopholes to enter the UK posing as a 14-year-old was a “very, very powerful illustration” of the need to reform age checks on migrants.

He said the Government would be “quickly” introducing X-ray and other scientific age checks to stop adult migrants claiming to be children to boost their asylum chances.

Abdulrahimzai claimed to be five years younger than he really was in order to enter the UK on a ferry from France in 2019 before going on to murder an aspiring Royal Marine.

He stabbed Thomas Roberts to death during a row over an e-scooter in Bournemouth, Dorset, in March 2022.

Despite having had an asylum application rejected in Norway just weeks earlier, he was granted permission to stay in the UK in December 2019 after claiming to be an unaccompanied child fleeing the Taliban. He was placed with a female foster carer and even awarded a place at a local secondary school.

But there are now calls for an inquiry into the case, after it emerged that he had lied about his age and was actually an adult who had gunned down two fellow migrants with a Kalashnikov rifle in Serbia on his way to the UK.

'Robust, tougher age assessments'

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Philp said the case illustrated why the Government was right to reform the immigration system with tougher laws that will see migrants entering illegally detained and removed back to their home country or a third state, like Rwanda, where they can claim asylum.

“He posed as 14 and together with immigration lawyers strung the process for years before it was discovered he was an adult. It demonstrates why we need more robust, tougher age assessment methods,” said Mr Philp.

“At the moment, age assessments are done by a social worker interviewer. What we need to introduce are scientific age assessment methods used in other European countries including X-rays of bones like the wrist.

“The immigration minister will be pretty quickly introducing those scientific physical age assessment techniques…This case is a very, very powerful illustration of why we need to do this.”

Abdulrahimzai claimed he was 14 years old when he arrived in Poole on a ferry from Cherbourg in France in December 2019 as an unaccompanied migrant without any documents - even though subsequent tests revealed him to be five years older.

Home Office guidance at the time stipulated that he could only be treated as an adult if his physical appearance and demeanour “strongly suggested” he was 25 or over.

It is believed that immigration officials did not accept his claimed age of 14 but, under the rules, had to give him the benefit of the doubt and allow him to be treated as a child until a more thorough “Merton” test of his age could be carried out by expert social workers.

'Abuse of the immigration system'

Sources said Abdulrahimza dragged out the process and “messed around” officials by failing to attend interviews and delaying the submission of his statement of evidence to support his asylum claim.

It is understood a Merton test was only carried out in February 2022, more than two years after his arrival in England and just a month before he murdered Tom Roberts. It judged his age to be 21, five years older than he was claiming and showing he had been an adult all along.

One source said: “We won’t tolerate abuse of the immigration system and we are looking to clamp down on it.”

Last year Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, unveiled the first change to the system by reducing the age threshold from 25 to 18.

It followed a successful supreme court case brought by the Home Office that overturned a 2019 Appeal Court ruling that its previous 18-year-old threshold was unlawful because it failed to ensure that children were not mistakenly treated as adults.

Ministers are now also proposing to introduce bone and teeth X-rays and scans to force migrants to prove their age and stop adults claiming to be children to boost their asylum chances.

A Home Office source said: “This is a shocking case and our thoughts are with Tom Roberts’ family and friends. It’s this government’s aim to bring in laws so that we can swiftly remove those who come to this country illegally.”

A new immigration bill is being drawn up by Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman that will mean migrants arriving in the UK illegally will be detained and automatically deported back to their home country or a third nation, like Rwanda, where they will be able to claim asylum.




https://www.yahoo.com/news/x-ray-age...101325647.html

NONE of them should be allowed to stay in our countries.

Those UACs are murdering our citizens and a UAC just murdered a woman in Maryland!

Send them all back home and shut down the bogus asylum program!

Now UK has to pay to x-ray these criminal trespassing animals? NO! Send them back.

MORE TO THE STORY...

How many UACs like this has Biden, Harris, and Mayorkas DUMPED all across America to murder us in cold blood?


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Killer had asylum claim rejected in Norway before UK accepted him as a 'child'




Will Bolton
Mon, January 23, 2023 at 3:59 PM EST








Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai - PA



On his journey from Afghanistan to Bournemouth, Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai travelled through at least five different countries, became a convicted drug dealer, and was sentenced to 20 years in a Serbian prison for murdering two of his countrymen with a Kalashnikov.

The asylum seeker, who on Monday was found guilty of murdering an aspiring Royal Marine, was able to board a ferry in Cherbourg, France and travel to the UK despite his criminal record, and having an asylum claim rejected by the Norwegian authorities a few weeks earlier.

In December 2019 he claimed asylum in Poole, Dorset after falsely telling a Home Office interviewer he was just 14-years-old when he was in fact at least 18.

The court heard that after his arrival in the UK, Abdulrahimzai posed with a knife on TikTok, was filmed on Snapchat assaulting a man in the street, got into street fights for money, and scared his foster carer with his love of knives.

He was placed with a local foster carer - who became so terrified of him she was forced to keep all the knives in the house locked away - and was also granted a place at a secondary school where he was taught alongside children.

The litany of missed opportunities and failings in the case illustrates the mammoth task facing the Government as it tries to reform the asylum system.

When Abdulrahimzai arrived in the UK, Home Office guidance at the time stipulated that he could only be treated as an adult if his physical appearance and demeanour “strongly suggested” he was 25 or over.

It is believed that immigration officials did not accept his claimed age of 14 but, under the rules, had to give him the benefit of the doubt and allow him to be treated as a child until a more thorough “Merton” test of his age could be carried out by expert social workers.

Sources said Abdulrahimza, now supported by immigration lawyers, dragged out the process and “messed around” officials by failing to attend interviews and delaying the submission of his statement of evidence to support his asylum claim.

It is understood a Merton test was only carried out in February 2022, more than two years after his arrival in England and just a month before he murdered Thomas Roberts.




Thomas Roberts - PA

It judged his age to be 21, five years older than he was claiming and showing he had been an adult all along.

Abdulrahimzai grew up in Afghanistan, but claims he was orphaned when his parents were killed by the Taliban after they were caught working with Nato and brewing alcohol.

Following their deaths, Abdulrahimzai, then aged just 13, was captured by militants and beaten and tortured for weeks.

He said he was stabbed “28 times” and hit with rifle butts before being left for dead on the side of the road.

He fled in October 2015 after his uncle helped arrange for him to be smuggled out of the country through Pakistan and Iran.

The 13-year-old Abdulrahimzai arrived in Norway late in 2015 but left soon afterwards and made his way to Trieste, Italy in 2016.

While there he was convicted of drug dealing and given a non-custodial sentence after pleading guilty.

By 26 June 2017 he had made his way to Serbia where he stayed for the next year and by August 2018 he was in the small village of Dobrinci just outside the town of Ruma.

The village was often passed by travelling groups of migrants making their way from the country’s capital Belgrade to the village of Šid which lies on the border of Croatia.

On the night of 31 July, Abdulrahimzai walked into a shed in farmland on the edge of Dobrinci where a group of refugees were staying, and gunned down two Afghan men in cold blood with an assault rifle.

Jurors at Salisbury Crown Court were unaware of this during the trial, but after finding him guilty, prosecutor Nic Lobbenberg KC revealed the details of the “terrifying” double murder.

He said: “An argument broke about the business of transporting migrants. He was armed with an automatic assault rifle, two others had pistols. One of the group said ‘who is the smuggler?’ and then aimed their weapons at the victims.

“He shot 18 rounds of a 7.62 calibre Kalashnikov. It’s a military weapon with great firepower and rapid rate of fire.

“The range of the shooting was said to be relatively short, three to 10 metres.”
Mr Lobbenberg said the killer did not move position at all while shooting and fired six rounds into each victim.

“An enormous number found their target”, he said.

Abdulrahimzai, who then fled Serbia, was later identified by a taxi driver who had driven him away from the scene.

The taxi driver said he was “sweating” and “showing signs of anxiety”.

A UN-backed report published in 2018 described the killings as one of the most "disturbing" incidents of the Balkan Route crisis.

Locals said people living in the area were afraid to work in nearby fields for weeks after the murder.

Number of aliases

While making his way across Europe, Abdulrahimzai used a number of different names and dates of birth.

At the time of the murders in Serbia he claimed to be 16-year-old Huan Yasin.
By the time he arrived in the UK a year and a half later he was 14-year-old Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai.

It was not until November 2020, by which point he was attending school in the UK, that Abdulrahimzai was convicted of both murders and sentenced to 20 years in his absence by a Serbian court.

Speaking at the conclusion of the trial in Salisbury, Judge Paul Dugdale said: "It's a terrifying case with the use of an automatic firearm possibly linked to the business of trafficking."

Abdulrahimzai’s foster carer, Nicola Marchant-Jones described his behaviour towards the end of the time he was under her care as a bit “Jekyll and Hyde”, saying his mood could change “from zero to 100 almost instantly."

On a shopping trip to buy a new coat she caught the defendant with a knife - which he had taken from her kitchen.

She informed social services who arranged for a social worker to come around and talk to him about knives.

Ms Marchant-Jones also revealed Abdulrahimzai had been engaging in street fights for money, earning up to £100 per bout.

The jury was played a video of material posted on Snapchat by Abdulrahimzai of him beating up an older man.

As the jurors announced their verdict, Abdulrahimzai, who was wearing a blue suit and tie with his black hair tied in a knot, closed his eyes and raised his head.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/machine-g...205915162.html