Immigration Minister Mark Harper Tells Iraqi Asylum Seeker to Go Home

The UK’s Immigration Minister Mark Harper has told a five-time failed asylum seeker that he had no right to be in the UK and should go home. Speaking live on the BBC’s Sunday Politics West show, the Immigration Minister rounded on Iraqi Esam Amin causing a backlash in the media. Mark Harper is the senior Tory minister behind the controversial ‘go home or face arrest’ campaign which we reported last week as been banned in the UK over misleading arrest statistics.

Mark Harper’s Heated Exchange with Asylum Seeker Live on TV

On Sunday, the government’s minister appeared on live TV alongside failed asylum seeker Esam Amin only to become embroiled in a heated exchange with the latter. Esam Amin has tried to claim asylum five times in the past six years, however, Mark Harper, a senior member of the Conservative Party told him this claims were “ridiculous” and that he should “leave the country.”

The Immigration Minister went on to tell the Iraqi, who has fled from his war torn homeland, that neither the British government nor the British courts thought his claim to stay in the country was legitimate and that the British taxpayer should not be responsible for him.

“We are very clear that Mr Amin has had the chance to claim asylum, his case has been looked at very carefully by the government, we didn’t find it credible. I’m afraid he has no right to be in the UK and he should leave.”

Asylum Seeker: Fight to Remain in the UK

Esam Amin claimed that his life would be in danger were he to return to Iraq.

“I am not an illegal person, I am an asylum seeker, I am a human being like you. My life in my country is in danger that’s why I decided and I left my family and everything to come here. I claimed asylum, I came to find a safe place. I know my story is true and your system doesn’t believe me.

Five times they didn’t believe me which has been going on for nearly six years. I can’t return to my home because my life is in danger there. I am campaigning so I can get my right to a safe place.”

Immigration Minister’s heated exchange with Esam Amin can be viewed here.

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