Scandal hits immigration service again
by Jess McCabe // 21 May 2006, 10:42
An immigration official has been caught on video propositioning a teenage rape victim from Zimbabwe, and offering to grease the wheels to help her claim asylum, just two months after the Home Office promised to crack down on similar abuses.
The Observer alleges that 53 year-old James Dawute picked the teenager out of a queue of asylum seekers and asked for her phone number. It publishes clips of Dawute offering to help her win her asylum case, and at the same time asking her for sex. Dawute works at Lunar House in Croydon, the same immigration processing centre that was the focus of an investigation because of evidence uncovered by the Sun.
Dawute has now been suspended, but the case raises serious questions about corruption and sexual abuse in Immigration and Nationality Directorate.
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