Customs officers arrested Amir Merikhi (27) after he was found in the back of a Vauxhall Corsa which had arrived from France on board the Condor Rapide in January and he later appeared in the Magistrate’s Court and was sentenced to a suspended ten-week jail term.
Authorities have said on numerous occasions in the past that any asylum seeker who comes to Jersey from an EU country will be returned to the place they departed from following an interview with immigration officers.
In 2011 a 25-year-old man, claiming to be South African, kayaked to the Ecréhous reef from France and was sent back on the basis that he should have claimed asylum in the first ‘safe country’ he arrived in, however, last week the Lieutenant-Governor, General Sir John McColl, appeared to break from that protocol and accepted Mr Merikhi’s appeal for asylum after reviewing a file prepared by Customs and Mr Merikhi was granted asylum in Britain and has chosen to live in the UK.
Dave Nurse, head of service for Customs, told the JEP that it was an exceptional case and in the future they ‘can and will’ return any migrants landing in Jersey from France, but despite Mr Nurse’s assertion, Deputy Jackie Hilton says she fears that the Island will now be ‘targeted’ by refugees seeking asylum in the UK.
