Failed asylum seeker leaves Island under Customs escort

Failed asylum seeker leaves Island under Customs escort

The removal of the man, accompanied by two Customs and Immigration Officers, brought to an end a saga that had rumbled on since August.

The asylum seeker and his legal team had challenged a Customs ruling that he should not have his case heard in Jersey because he had arrived from, and had asylum in, countries deemed as ‘safe’.

But lawyers had argued that the man, who claims he was tortured and threatened by ISIS in Syria, had been attacked and persecuted in the European state where he had asylum and if he returned there he was at risk of taking his own life. His counsel argued that not allowing the man to stay in Jersey would breach his human rights.

But last week, the Royal Court ruled against him and as such he was locked up in La Moye as an illegal immigrant.

His legal team had one month to appeal but chose not to and he was removed on Thursday. Counsel for the Customs and Immigration Service had argued that granting him the right to have his asylum case heard, or granting him asylum, could ‘open the floodgates’.

Now Home Affairs Minister Len Norman has said it is not appropriate for Jersey to ‘open its doors’ to migrants ‘who already benefit from such protection in another safe country’.

According to Rule 345 of the Jersey Immigration Rules, senior Customs officers or the Home Affairs Minister have the power to refuse asylum without a case being heard by a judge if they are ‘satisfied that there is a safe country to which an asylum applicant can be sent’.

A safe country, under the rules, ‘is one which the life or freedom of the asylum applicant could not be threatened and the government of which would not send the applicant elsewhere’.

The minister said: ‘Every asylum claim is treated as an individual case, and as part of its international obligations, which it has signed up to, Jersey will rightly afford refuge or humanitarian protection to anyone who fulfils the necessary criteria. It is not appropriate for Jersey to open its doors to those who already benefit from such protection in another safe country.’

Customs and Immigration acting director Luke Goddard would not be drawn on whether there was any intelligence suggesting more migrants in France were attempting to come to Jersey but he stressed a robust ‘migrant plan’ was in place and urged members of the public to stay ‘vigilant’.

A spokeswoman for Customs also moved to clarify the ‘floodgates’ argument, saying the concern was less about the case setting a precedent that would mean other migrants trying to enter Jersey using similar legal arguments would be successful but more about migrants seeing Jersey as an option – even it was not viable because of existing legislation.

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