UK jail for illegal Zimbabwean workers

UK jail for illegal Zimbabwean workers

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By Staff Reporter

TWO Zimbabwean asylum seekers found working in a warehouse in Coventry, England, have been sent to jail.

The police raid on the warehouse owned by Co-operative Logistics, in Prologis Park, Holbrooks, was the second in four months, it emerged.

Daniel Moyo, 33, and Likhwa Mnkandla, 35, appeared separately at Coventry Crown Court after each pleaded guilty to possession of an identity document with intent and obtaining pecuniary advantage by deception.

They were arrested in the raids on March 28.

Asylum seekers are not allowed to work in the UK. Asylum campaigners have been lobbying the government to allow asylum seekers to work while their asylum claims are being processed.

But the government has turned down the petitions fearing that allowing asylum seekers to seek employment could work as a pull factor for economic migrants.

A small fraction of Zimbabwean asylum claimants are successful, forcing many to go underground and seek informal employment to beat poverty.

Judge James Pyke heard that Moyo, of Dunster Place, Holbrooks, had entered the country legally in December 2003.

Kathryn Roughton, prosecuting, said he had fled from Zimbabwe to South Africa where he legally got a passport.

In the UK he applied for asylum but was refused.

As a failed asylum seeker he was not allowed to work but in May 2005 took a job at Co-operative Retail Logistics after telling bosses he was allowed to work in the UK and did not require a work permit.

In December 2006 he provided his employers with a false registration card which he later admitted he had bought for £150 in a pub.

Mnkandla, of Thread-needle Street, Radford, Coventry, came to the UK two years ago from Zimbabwe using a false passport and had never sought asylum.

He used a forged letter from the Home Office, again bought for £150, which appeared to allow him to stay and work.

He started working at the warehouse in September last year.

Glyn Samuel, in mitigation, said Moyo had been paying tax and National Insurance contributions since he started work.

Moyo and Mnkandla were sentenced to eight months and 12 months imprisonment respectively.

A spokeswoman for Co-operative Retail Logistics said: "These convictions have resulted from a long-standing investigation by the immigration services and police, with whom we have co-operated throughout, and will continue to do so."
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