Tory minister claims ‘lawy loopholes are grooming people’ to get asylum

Science Minister Andrew Griffiths claimed that “loophole lawyers” were “grooming people like Clapham attacker Abdul Ezeidi” to “get through” the UK asylum system.

Griffiths said the government’s flagship Rwanda Security Bill would prevent asylum from being given to dangerous people, saying: “We do know there are loopholes lawyers are grooming people for”.

The minister’s comments come after a trove of court documents were revealed showing Mr Ezedi was granted asylum by a judge who recognized he was a Christian convert despite concerns the sex offender was a fraud.

In an interview, a sky news The host questioned the “strong” wording of the minister and asked whether lawyers were “coaching them”.

Mr Griffiths responded: “Counseling them, sorry, counseling is a better word. But we know what we are talking about. In this case he did not initially apply for asylum on religious grounds.”

He added: “Those claims have been rejected. He subsequently applied for asylum on these very different grounds. But let’s be clear, the key thing is that he arrived here illegally in the first place. So that’s what we’re looking to change.”

Some immigration documents show a judge had rejected the Clapham attacker’s asylum application in 2017 because they did not believe he had converted to Christianity within weeks.

However, he was granted residency three years later after successfully convincing a judge on appeal that his new Christian faith could lead to him being persecuted if he was sent back to Afghanistan.

Griffiths said the Rwandan government’s legislation would change the asylum system to prevent a similar situation from happening again: “We cannot run an asylum system based on gullible clergy and left-handed lawyers. That’s why we want to fundamentally reform it .”

He added that “the laws we are now trying to pass in the House of Lords” will stop “people in cases like the one you refer to… and that will apply to this case as it does to many other cases that people are concerned about.”

After the Clapham attack, Home Secretary James Cleverly convened church leaders to discuss issues surrounding the case.

A source close to Mr Cleverley said: “Following the horrific attack by this man, the Home Secretary convened a meeting with senior representatives of the vast majority of the country’s Christian denominations and discussed Christianity The role of converts in asylums.” He took court action after the Home Office rejected him twice.

“We would like to convey the potential harm that may be suffered by these churches whose actions, rightly or wrongly, violate the integrity of our asylum system and where Christian conversions are raised on appeal.

“In this case, the consequences are shocking.

They added: “This reputational risk is only amplified by the fact that some of those who denied knowing Ezedi at the time actually knew him within their churches and supported and vouched for him.”

Labour’s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper called on Mr Cleverley to explain why Mr Ezeidi had been allowed to live in the UK for the past two years, calling the court documents “disturbing”: “Regarding Abu The latest disturbing revelations in the case of Dule Ezeidi raise some serious and serious consequences.” Urgent question to the Home Office.

She added: “The Home Secretary must explain why his department failed to deport Ezeidi from the UK in the two years after his first asylum application was refused, particularly after he was convicted of sex offences.”

The Rwanda Bill will return to the House of Commons after Easter.