Iraqi asylum seeker jailed

AN asylum seeker from Iraq who lied to stay in the UK, has been jailed.

Dana Kadir, a 25-year-old Kurdish chicken farmer gave a false name to immigration officers at Felixstowe and told them he had recently fled persecution in Iraq.

Ipswich Crown Court heard that Kadir had actually fled from his home about five years ago, because some soldiers were killed near the Kurdish border very close to his farm and he was under suspicion by the security forces.

Charles Myatt, prosecuting, said Kadir went to Germany where he lived for four years in an immigration camp.

He said: "He did not like the accommodation or the German people. He decided to come to England. He arrived in Dover stowed away in a lorry and sought asylum in his real name."

The court heard that Kadir's photograph and fingerprints were taken for the application.

However, when Kadir was told that the immigration service had discovered he had lived in Germany and would be sent back there he absconded.

Mr Myatt said: "That is when he re-applied for asylum in Felixstowe."

Kadir's fingerprints and photograph on the false application matched those on the Dover application and Kadir was arrested.

He pleaded guilty to seeking to obtain leave to remain in the UK by giving false details.

Ruper Overbury mitigating for Kadir said: "We know the Kurds in Northern Iraq have been persecuted for a number of years. He has no family outside Iraq, he was desperate to find somewhere he could live and receive basic human rights. At the German immigration camp they could not travel further than 20 miles away and they were not allowed to work or study."

In court on Thursday Judge John Devaux said: "This was a very determined attempt to mislead the authorities in this country and you arrived here, not as someone who recently fled his homeland, but as someone who spent four years in another European country."

Kadir was jailed for 14 months.