News In Focus
1 August 2006
Sheriff hits out at immigration policy
An Aberdeen sheriff yesterday spoke out against the Home Office's policy of detaining illegal immigrants after being told there was no space to detain three accused before him.
Sheriff Douglas Cusine was dealing with the cases of Abdel Arbaoui, Sedaoui Djilali and Khaled Khaili who admitted a series of charges including fraud and having false passports.
The Aberdeen enforcement office of the UK Immigration and Removals Department initially told a social worker reporting on the case that the men would be held until the end of the criminal cases against them. They would then be moved to an immigration detention centre, likely to be in England.
But last week the social worker was told there was no room for the three men.
In response Sheriff Cusine commented the Home Office had a get-tough policy on illegal immigrants but not the space to deal with them. He jailed each of the accused for a month and backdated the sentence to July 3, the day they first appeared in court, resulting in their immediate release.
The Home Office said there were limited detention spaces available, and immigrants thought to pose a risk to the public were more likely to be detained.