Thread: UK:IAs released to make own way to detention centres

Illegal immigrants released to make own way to detention centres

8:40am Thursday 24th July 2008

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Photograph of the Author By Emma Tilley »


ILLEGAL immigrants arrested in the Cotswolds are being released by Government officials and asked to make their own way to detention centres, the Standard can reveal.

Police say they are powerless to detain someone who has smuggled themselves into the country on the back of a lorry.

"To just release them into the community with a polite request to turn up to an asylum centre just defies belief."
Cllr Clive Bennett

Instead they are passed on to immigration officials to claim asylum.

And frustrated police officers say that often the immigrants are released and asked to make their own way to detention centres elsewhere in the UK.

The revelation came to light after five stowaways jumped from a convoy of lorries as it stopped at the Duke of Gloucester barracks in South Cerney last Tuesday evening, as we exclusively reported last week.

The five men, including two Afghans aged 16 and 18 and a 15-year-old Iranian, were immidiately surrounded by armed soldiers and arrested. They were taken to Stroud Police Station for questioning.

A police source said the Cotswolds was a common place for long-haul lorry drivers to stop after crossing the channel when anyone hiding would take their chance to run. In June eight immigrants were arrested in the Cotswolds.

"Once they are interviewed they are often released and told to make their own way to an immigration centre," the source said.

"If they fail to do so they are unable to claim any benefits. If they do not register for asylum in time they disappear into the black market and are liable to be arrested."

However many illegal immigrants are believed to have UK contacts for when they arrive.

In October last year a father and son from Vietnam sprang from a lorry close to Standard columnist Di Alexander's home. After calling police she took them in and fed them.

"One had a mobile number which I suspect was a gangmaster," she said. "When I phoned it there was no response."

Cotswold MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said the situation illustrated the need for tighter immigration laws in the UK.

"It is far too loose. We are virtually a free country for anyone who wants to come here," he said.

Cotswold District Council's portfolio holder for safe and strong communities, Cllr Clive Bennett was furious.

"To just release them into the community with a polite request to turn up to an asylum centre just defies belief," he said. "They should be slung out of the country."

A UK Border Agency spokesperson said if asylum seekers failed to report their claim was terminated.

"Where an individual is found to have no legal right to remain in the UK we will remove them," he added. "We remove one person every eight minutes."
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This place is using the American Way of catch and release. They will pay a price on down the road.