| No Borders South Wales were this afternoon holding a protest outside the Cardiff offices of the UK Border Agency - which deals with asylum seekers - and said the demo had taken on a new dimension in the light of revelations by a former employee, Louise Perrett, in today's Guardian.
Ms Perrett, who worked as a case owner at the Border Agency office in Cardiff for three and a half months last summer, claimed that asylum seekers were mistreated, tricked and humiliated by staff working for the Border Agency.
She said staff kept a stuffed gorilla, a "grant monkey", which was placed as a badge of shame on the desk of any officer who approved an asylum application.
Ms Perrett, 29, also alleges that one official boasted to her that he tested the claims of boys from African countries who said they had been forcibly conscripted as child soldiers by making them lie down on the floor and demonstrate how they shot at people in the bush.
One method used to determine the authenticity of an asylum seeker claiming to be from North Korea was to ask whether the person ate chop suey.
One of her cases involved a Congolese woman who had the right to remain in the UK. Perrett says a superior nevertheless decided the woman and her children should be removed, and asked officials whether there were any grounds to remove them.
Frustrated, she approached a member of the legal department. His reply, according to Perrett, was: "Umbongo, umbongo, they kill them in the Congo."
Jenny Willott, Welsh Liberal Democrat MP for Cardiff Central, said: “These are some of the most serious accusations I have seen levelled at UKBA and seem to imply that the agency is institutionally racist. “UKBA management claim that all complaints over staff conduct are dealt with properly. But the picture painted suggests that senior members of staff are guilty of creating a culture where many asylum seekers are treated appalling. “I will be tabling a series of Parliamentary Questions to try to get to the bottom of this. These accusations justify a root-and-branch parliamentary investigation into the UKBA.� Matthew Coats, head of immigration at the UK Border Agency, disputed Perrett's claim that she raised concerns and the department declined to respond to her specific allegations. But he said the agency "expects the highest levels of integrity and behaviour from all our staff," adding: "We take all allegations of inappropriate behaviour extremely seriously." |
