'Sex for asylum' UK officer suspended

'Sex for asylum' UK officer suspended

• 'I will help you,' he said. Then he asked for sex

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• Decision will impact on all Zim asylum seekers

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By Staff Reporter

A BRITISH immigration officer was suspended from his job on Saturday after a newspaper alleged he offered to help an 18-year-old Zimbabwean woman with her asylum application in exchange for sex, the Home Office said.

"A Home Office official has been suspended pending a full investigation," a spokesperson for the ministry said.

"The Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) expects the highest levels of integrity from its staff and any suspicions of corruption are investigated."

The Observer newspaper said the 53-year-old man, based at the IND's Croydon office, had offered to coach the teenager before her asylum interview so she could give the right answers.

The paper said he sent text messages to her mobile phone and, when she asked for assurances, asked her to meet him at a hotel, saying: "I will tell you when we are alone because you are going to have sex."

The news is the latest in a series of embarrassments for the Home Office, which last month admitted that it had allowed over 1 000 foreign prisoners to walk free from British jails when they should have been considered for deportation.

Home secretary (interior minister) Charles Clarke was sacked in a reshuffle shortly after the fiasco was revealed and has been replaced by John Reid.

The Home Office is also looking into allegations that a handful of illegal immigrants worked for several years as cleaners at the IND's own offices - Reuters
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