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Saturday, October 15, 2011
Earlier this year, a 36-year-old Somali man arrived in Britain and claimed asylum. He told Border Agency officials he had left his home in Mogadishu because he feared for his life and had paid around £650 to be smuggled here. He was, he said, a member of the Ashraf clan, one of the smaller ethnic groupings in Somalia.
As such he was at particular danger from al-Shabaab, a notorious terrorist group of Islamist militants currently locked in bloody battle with the government and sworn enemies of the clan.
Indeed, the man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, claimed that its followers had one day approached him at his market stall, taken him to a terror camp and threatened him. And so he felt he had no option but to leave his wife and flee the country, heading to Britain and safety.
The man did not belong to the Ashraf clan, but, in fact, comes from the Hawiye, the dominant grouping in Mogadishu. And neither he, nor anyone from his family, had ever been threatened by anyone from al-Shabaab.
His story was a complete fabrication designed to improve his chances of being granted asylum in this country. He had been coached to say what he did by fellow countrymen both in Somalia and here in Britain, well versed in how to best play our immigration system.
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