Elizabeth Kiwunga, who was detained by immigration officials in the early hours of Thursday morning, has been twice denied asylum, despite her supporters’ claims they have evidence she was tortured in her homeland.

Councillors, residents and church leaders from Darlington will gather in the market place this weekend in a show of support Ms Kiwunga.

The Reverend Sheilagh Williamson of St Columbas Church, in Parkside, Darlington, has lead the campaign to prevent Ms Kiwunga’s removal.

She said: “We made a new application to the Home Office sent by an independent wound expert who verified that the marks on her body were made by torture.”

Rev Williamson also raised concerns about the manner in which Ms Kiwunga was detained, after immigration officials swooped on her home at about 7.15am on Wednesday.

“It’s just dreadful,” she added. “I can’t describe what kind of state she is in.

“It was terrifying, her children were taken from her and put in separate vehicles.”

Speaking today from Strasbourg last night, MEP Stephen Hughes, who has also been involved in the campaign, said fellow MEP Claude Moraes, a former immigration lawyer, was also supporting Ms Kiwunga.

“Elizabeth and her two beautiful children have become valued members of the Darlington community,” said Mr Hughes.

“All we are asking is that the additional evidence of torture, corroborated by an eminent physician, that has been provided in her latest asylum application be considered fairly and in the context of the fact that this is the first time that she has been able to tell her story.

“I am concerned that the new evidence was not taken into account and that this latest decision has been unfairly based upon earlier incorrect assumptions.”

A spokeswoman for the UK Border Agency said: “Removals are always carried out in the most sensitive way possible, treating those being removed with courtesy and dignity.

“We only seek to remove families who are in the UK unlawfully when all appeal rights are exhausted and they have no further claim to remain in the UK.

“We only return those who the independent courts have found do not need international protection and can return safely.”

If failed asylum seekers do not depart voluntarily then we will enforce their return.

Supporters of Ms Kiwunga, or any other asylum seeker, are invited to attend Darlington Market Place at 6pm.

A Lithuanian lorry driver managed to set up home – including two televisions and a chest of drawers – in a garden shed without the owner of the adjoining property noticing.

At first Kelly Dudley thought the man in blue overalls had been sent by her landlord to clear the overgrown garden.

But when she saw him emerge from the shed on a Sunday morning her suspicions were aroused.

Inside the shed she found a large wooden-framed single bed, two televisions, a chest of drawers, a camping stove, pots and pans, a carpet, crockery, bags full of clothes, aftershave, and a shaving mirror.

“It beggars belief,” said Miss Dudley, 25, from Banbury, Oxfordshire.

“The police came and tried to speak to him but all he could say was his name is John, he’d been there five days and he drives lorries and cranes.

“I’ve got no idea how he did it and I’ve been on maternity leave while he’s been there, so he did it right under my nose.

“He’s cleared my whole garden completely without any tools and once I’d finished being scared I actually felt a bit sorry for him – he’s clearly very house-proud, it’s been kept very tidy and is probably nicer than some bedsits you can get in Banbury. I put some pot plants out and he even planted them in the garden one day.”

“He offered to pay me rent and do my gardening for free if I let him stay there,” she said.

“I’ve got a six-month-old daughter and I might have considered it if I didn’t have her.

“It’s an amazing, funny story but it’s also very frightening .”

PC Matt Locke of Banbury police station said: “We were contacted by a woman who claimed a homeless man was living in her shed.

“Local PCSOs visited and discovered a bed, television and other personal property had been moved into the shed.

“Another PC and I attended and interviewed the man, who was totally co-operative. He told us he was a Lithuanian national who had lost his job and became homeless.

“The garden, which has access from the road, was very overgrown and he thought the shed was abandoned, so he moved in, even cleaning up the garden.

“He hadn’t committed any criminal offences, but we asked him to move on and he did so willingly, telling us he was going to pursue ways of returning to his home country.”

MADRID (Reuters) – Fourteen African immigrants, including nine children, died from heat exposure trying to reach Spain by boat from North Africa, the Spanish news agency EFE reported on Thursday.

Spanish coastguards rescued 35 people from the boat about 40 miles (65 km) off the coast of southern Spain overnight after they had survived five days at sea, said the news agency.

The survivors told the coastguards they had thrown the bodies of the dead children, aged between nine months and four years, into the sea, it said.

EFE said many of the survivors were in such poor condition that they were unable to stand and had to be carried ashore for medical assistance.

Spanish officials were not immediately available for comment on the report.

Earlier this week, 14 Nigerian immigrants were believed to have drowned near the Spanish coast when their boat capsized in heavy seas.

Thousands of Africans are believed to have died in the past few years trying to reach a better life in Spain.

But tens of thousands have reached Spanish shores, mainly in the Canary Islands, prompting Spain’s Socialist government to toughen its line on illegal immigration and vow to repatriate all who arrive without visas.

The number of babies born in England and Wales has reached the highest level for more than 16 years on the back of rising immigration.

There were 691,013 births in 2007, a three per cent rise over the year before and the highest level since 1991.

The new baby boom is closely linked to high levels of immigration over recent years as foreign families tend to have more children.

More than one in five births were to women who were born overseas, the Office for National Statistics said.

And the numbers of older mothers also rose.
Fertility rates among women over 40 went up by six per cent last year and have now doubled in the 15 years since 1992.
More than 12 in every 1,000 women over 40 gave birth last year and they had 25,350 babies, nearly double the 12,914 babies born to over 40s in 1997.

The rapid growth in numbers of older mothers reflects the increasing numbers of women who put careers first.
It has gone alongside an increase in the age at which women first marry, and a rise in cohabitation.

Overall the figures mean that each woman is now likely to have 1.91 babies in her life, the highest fertility rate since 1973.

Highest birth rates were in the West Midlands, where each woman can expect 2.04 children.

Many prepaid phone-card fees are hidden, leaving customers feeling they get more minutes than they really do. Companies can charge “connection” and “hang-up” fees as high as $2. While some fees were disclosed in fine print, it was in English — even in cases where card companies market heavily in Spanish to reach immigrant customers.

In a crackdown that augurs sweeping change in the $4 billion prepaid phone-card industry, state regulators are forcing card vendors to make amends for practices critics say cheat consumers out of hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
Florida’s Attorney General in recent weeks struck settlements with 10 phone-card companies accused of such practices as false advertising and assessing hidden fees. As part of the agreements, vendors will have to overhaul everything from fee structures to marketing methods. Other states are likely to follow suit. IDT, one of the biggest players in the prepaid-card business, says it knows of roughly a dozen other states that are conducting similar investigations, and the Federal Trade Commission brought enforcement actions against seven companies earlier this year. “We believe this will significantly alter the way the industry works,” says Sandi Copes, press secretary for Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum.

Effect on Immigrants

In Florida at least, the settlements come as a boon for the millions of immigrants who rely on these cards to call relatives back home for as little as 2 percent a minute. Among them is Mario, a 30-year-old Honduran who lives in Atlanta and uses prepaid cards to talk with his daughters in the Central American country. Mario, who declined to give his last name, says he’s long suspected he’s getting shortchanged on minutes. “No, I don’t get all the minutes” promised by the cards, he says through an interpreter as he purchases a $5 card at Plaza Fiesta, a local mall popular with immigrants.

Neither do many of his peers, according to the Hispanic Institute, a research nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. In a survey of 45 prepaid cards conducted last November by Washington [D.C.]-based Network Analytics for the institute, the card companies delivered only 60 percent of the minutes they promised in voice prompts. And even that may understate the problem. For the study, researchers used a single international call to compare the fees and minutes for each card; if the minutes had been spread out over several calls, users would have been socked with even more fees. While the fees may only shave a few minutes from each transaction, they can quickly add up: The Hispanic Institute estimates Hispanics are cheated out of nearly $1 million per day with these cards.

And according to critics, many of these fees are hidden — leaving customers feeling they get more minutes than they really do. Companies can charge “connection” and “hang-up” fees as high as $2, and some round up calls in three- or four-minute increments. And while some of the fees were disclosed in fine print, the disclosures were in English — even in cases where card companies market heavily in Spanish to reach immigrant customers.

More than 2,000 children are detained in the UK every year while the asylum claims of their parents are considered.

The Independent Asylum Commission (IAC), which is also calling for an end to children of asylum seekers being X-rayed to determine their age, wants guardianship schemes to be set up instead.

A new report out on Thursday called for a root and branch review of Britain’s detention policies.

The IAC wants asylum seekers to only be detained when they pose a threat to national security or when there is no alternative to return them to their country of origin.

A poll released to coincide with the commission’s final report – Deserving Dignity – said 70 per cent of Britons believe individuals should not be detained if they have not committed a crime or present a risk to society.

According to today’s report, survivors of torture and abuse are not being treated with dignity, while it also raises the question of why the basic safeguards that exist in the criminal system are not being applied to detention.

It also suggests allowing people seeking sanctuary to work while their claim is under consideration.

Sir John Waite, formerly a high court judge and a past chair of Unicef, commented: “The way we treat the most vulnerable in our midst is a true gauge of our values as a nation and a people.

“The public rightly expects fair and humane treatment of asylum seekers, befitting of a civilised society. Our review has found that there is a considerable distance to travel until the reality of how we treat women, children and torture survivors who seek sanctuary in the UK matches that aspiration.”

The commission’s report has received the backing of the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, who has added his voice to calls to end the detention of asylum seekers’ children.

“Many Anglican chaplains serve the spiritual and emotional needs of asylum seekers within detention centres. They have seen the scars, both figurative and literal, left by torture and abuse on people, who are currently deprived of liberty, even though they have broken no laws and pose no threat to our society,” Dr Williams explained.

“Deserving Dignity is an apt title for this report. The dignity that each of us expect and deserve as human beings and which we owe to our neighbours, cannot be wholly at the mercy of the pressures of effective border control.”

Both the Scottish and Welsh Refugee Councils are supporting the IAC’s findings, with the Immigration Advisory Service describing the report as a “wake-up call” for the government.

The Children’s Society said children should only be detained under any circumstances as a last resort, while Barnardo’s said current government policy was causing families and children seeking sanctuary to be “driven into destitution”.

The charity’s chief executive Martin Narey said: “The government must change its policy to allow asylum seekers whose case has not been resolved within six months the ability to use their skills and pay their way. They seek only the right to give their children a better life and recover some dignity for themselves.

“The current situation is a stain on our moral authority as a nation.”

A spokesperson at the UK Borders Agency (UKBA) told inthenews.co.uk the government was committed to delivering “more sensitive” treatment for children in the asylum system.

“That is why we are pioneering alternatives to detention now and why we said last week that UKBA should be subject to section 11 of the Children Act 2004 which requires us to safeguard children and promote their welfare,” the representative added.

The agency insisted detention plays a “vital role” in effective immigration control but accepts it is a last-resort measure.

A gang of asylum seekers made £200,000 by faking insurance claims for car crashes.

The seven men, including Iraqi and Kuwaiti nationals who claimed they had been tortured in their homelands, submitted more than 50 bogus claims before they were detected.

They sought cash for supposedly high-value cars that had already been written off when the accidents took place.

Claims included £23,000 for a Toyota, £10,000 for a Mercedes 300, more than £8,000 for a Mazda MX3 and £4,000 for a Ford Mondeo saloon.

All the men were either friends or relatives and five have since become British citizens.

City of London police launched an investigation after insurers became suspicious when they spotted the same addresses and vehicles appearing on numerous claims.

Some of the group changed their name by deed poll and rented empty flats to use in the fake insurance claims.

They also bought cars from salvage yards to use in the scam.

When the fraudsters were arrested in June 2006 detectives found a Volvo parked outside one of their homes that had appeared in five of the claims.

Police found evidence that some of the gang, two of whom worked for a car rental company, were also claiming disability allowances because of their treatment in Iraq and Kuwait.

They had claimed that they had suffered torture and were receiving medication and treatment for depression as a result.

The seven men from north-west London were due to be sentenced today after pleading guilty at Croydon Crown Court last month to conspiracy to defraud in more than 30 insurance claims between 2003 and 2006.

The gang were Nasser Fahad Al Fadhly, 35, who was formerly Nasser Fahad Al Ameri; Razi Kreedy, 31, formerly Kazi Al Ameri; Duab Zamel Albadry, 26; Nasser Mihthaf Alfadhly, 37, formerly known as Nasser Fadel; Lafy Al Dafhery, 34; Ahmed Rahim, 29 and Khaled Atek Alfadli, 30.

An illegal immigrant who used a false passport and bogus national insurance card to obtain work has been jailed for six months.

The judge also recommended that Naimishkumar Patel be deported to India at the end of his sentence.

Leicester Crown Court was told that Patel (26) came to the UK with his wife on a visitor’s visa in 2004 and overstayed.
Meena Evans, prosecuting, said that Patel obtained a job in Leicester and produced a false passport and national insurance card as proof of identity.

He continued to work for 11 months until his arrest.

In interview, he admitted failing to return to India when his visa expired and said he obtained the bogus passport in London for about £600 or £800.

Ms Evans said: “He said he knew it was wrong, but he needed the documents in order to seek employment.”

Patel, of Leire Street, Leicester, admitted two charges of having false documents and one of fraudulently obtaining work.

James Varley, defending, said that Patel accepted taking a job he was not entitled to.

He said Patel and his wife overstayed and failed to leave because his business back home had failed and creditors were making threats.

Mr Varley said: “He did not use the documents to get into the country but to get a job and was entirely honest on his arrest.”

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – A French woman was arrested in California early Thursday on charges of running an immigration scam with her husband that netted thousands of dollars, US justice officials said.
 
Deborah Sion, 25, was detained without incident by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, one day after charges were filed against her and her husband, who is in custody in France in an unrelated fraud scheme.

Sion was due to appear in a Los Angeles court later Thursday.

Investigators say Sion and her husband, Isaac Peres, posted bogus adverts on Internet sites such as craigslist.com and franceservice.com offering positions for French employees at restaurants and casinos in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

The advertisements offered successful applicants assistance with acquiring legal status in the United States, charging between 1,500 and 2,700 euros for the fake immigration services.

More than 100 people were duped in the alleged scam. Several victims only discovered they had been conned when they went to the American consulate in Paris and were told that their green cards were fake.

Other victims were refused entry to the United States when immigration authorities determined their documents were false.

Sion and Peres face multiple charges including mail fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, and could face up to 57 years in prison if convicted.

“The defendants in this case preyed upon people seeking the American dream,” said Thomas O’Brien, the United States Attorney in Los Angeles.

“This case is all the more egregious because their victims were primarily fellow French citizens.”

Philippe Larrieu, the French Consul General in Los Angeles, urged victims who had not yet come forward to contact authorities, and said the arrests were the result of “remarkable co-operation” between US and French law enforcement.

The High Court has stopped a Libyan company, the new owners of the Grand Regency hotel, from carrying out dealings on it.

In effect this means that the company remains the owner of the hotel but it cannot transfer it or dispose it off until the court hears the case.

High Court Judge Mr Justice Alnashir Visram has issued temporary orders stopping the company known as Libyan Arab African Investment from interfering with the ownership of the hotel for the next 14 days.

The Judge granted the temporary order following application by one of the hotel’s receiver manager Mr Hezekiah Gichohi.

However, the judge gave the temporary reprieve on condition that Mr Gichohi files an undertaking for damages by next Monday.

An undertaking for damages means if it turns out that the company is not the new owner of the hotel then Mr Gichohi will compensate for any damages caused.

Justice Visram while giving the order said: “Having perused the suit papers and heard the submissions of the lawyer, I am satisfied this is a proper case warranting temporary stay.”

The judge also allowed lawyer Kibe Mungai representing Mr Gichohi to file supplementary affidavit in court in the next ten days.

Mr Gichohi wanted the transfer of the hotel stopped because he says it owes him Sh34 million. He says the decision by the Central Bank of Kenya to secretly transfer the hotel will interfere with his right to the money.

He believes that the transfer of the hotel is illegal and should be stopped.

The hotel is at the centre of corruption allegations and so public interest compels the court to restrain Libyan Arab African Investment from interfering with it, he argues.

Given his involvement in the preservation of the hotel for the last five years, he said, he is qualified to act in the matter as a public agent.

Mr Gichohi is a certified public accountant and was appointed as one of the joint receiver managers of the hotel in June 2003 by the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission.

The other receiver manager was Mr Peter Ndaa who was appointed by Uhuru Highway Development Ltd.

Mr Gichohi also told the court that early this year the Uhuru Highway Development and CBK clandestinely began a valuation of the hotel. Under normal circumstances, he said, such valuation ought to be done with the knowledge of the receiver managers.

In his suit papers, Mr Gichohi has listed Uhuru Highway Development Ltd, Central Bank of Kenya and Libyan Arab African Investment and the Grand Regency Hotel as defendants.

The case comes up for hearing in presence of all the parties on July 16.