Of course, this figure accounts only for those tracked down by officials — leaving tens of thousands who have avoided detection free to stay. A significant number of those foreigners fighting to remain in Britain are small-time criminals, terrorists or fraudsters, although the vast majority originally simply slipped into Britain illegally or deliberately overstayed their visas.
Now, for the first time, the sheer scale of this scandal can be revealed because documents have been released on the Ministry of Justice website, giving details of scores of appeal cases.
A typical example is Rhomaine Miyando Mohan, who has appealed five times in 11 years against attempts to kick him out in what Senior Immigration Judge Waumsley described as a ‘contemptuous disregard for British immigration law’.
The Jamaican has fathered three daughters by two British women despite being deported in 2006 for overstaying his one-month visitor’s visa by six years. After slipping back into the UK on a bogus passport, he was jailed twice for a series of crimes, including driving offences and cocaine possession.
This summer saw the latest attempt by the Home Office to boot him out. His appeal against removal from the UK was turned down. So where is Mohan now? He remains in Britain as officials struggle with the chaotic immigration system to deport him.
Then there is the case of a woman from Nigeria who came to Britain and overstayed her visa. She took her case to appeal, claiming she would not be safe in her home country. She explained that when still in Nigeria she had killed a snake ‘by accident’. As a result, she was a hated figure, because her fellow villagers worship snakes as sacred creatures. If she returned home, her safety could not be guaranteed. The files show her appeal failed — but, on previous form, she is likely still to be here.
A similar case also exposes the preposterous nature of many of the appeals. It involved a 28-year-old Albanian woman, now living in Brighton, who fought against being deported by arguing that, as a lesbian, she would be killed if she returned to Albania (despite there being no law there that discriminates against homosexuality).
A typical example is Rhomaine Miyando Mohan, who has appealed five times in 11 years against attempts to kick him out in what Senior Immigration Judge Waumsley described as a ‘contemptuous disregard for British immigration law’.
The Jamaican has fathered three daughters by two British women despite being deported in 2006 for overstaying his one-month visitor’s visa by six years. After slipping back into the UK on a bogus passport, he was jailed twice for a series of crimes, including driving offences and cocaine possession.
This summer saw the latest attempt by the Home Office to boot him out. His appeal against removal from the UK was turned down. So where is Mohan now? He remains in Britain as officials struggle with the chaotic immigration system to deport him.
Then there is the case of a woman from Nigeria who came to Britain and overstayed her visa. She took her case to appeal, claiming she would not be safe in her home country. She explained that when still in Nigeria she had killed a snake ‘by accident’. As a result, she was a hated figure, because her fellow villagers worship snakes as sacred creatures. If she returned home, her safety could not be guaranteed. The files show her appeal failed — but, on previous form, she is likely still to be here.
A similar case also exposes the preposterous nature of many of the appeals. It involved a 28-year-old Albanian woman, now living in Brighton, who fought against being deported by arguing that, as a lesbian, she would be killed if she returned to Albania (despite there being no law there that discriminates against homosexuality).
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