A former UK Border Agency employee claimed bigotry about immigrants and asylum seekers was widespread at the organization's Welsh base in Cardiff. Louise Perrett, who had previously worked at the centre on Newport Road, spoke publicly about practices and staff behaviour there. The whistleblower told the Guardian that after starting work at the office last summer she saw staff trick and humiliate asylum seekers. The 29-year-old also alleged workers used a stuffed gorilla - "a great monkey" - as a badge of shame whenever an employee approved a asylum application.
Ms Perrett was deployed to the city office last year after being taken on as a temp by Hays recruitment agency. The tone of her career was set on her first day, she claimed, when a manager allegedly said that if it was up to her asylum seekers would be shepherded outside and shot. She claimed it later emerged that senior staff members routinely shared anti-immigration views and that one employee had tested claims of ****** conscription by African boys by asking them to lie on the ground and demonstrate how people were shot. Ms Perrett said she had very little training, but was charged with making legally-binding decisions to grant or refuse asylum and whether to detain individuals and families for up to 28 days. She described her colleagues' alleged behaviour as humiliating and rude.
Kate Smart, director of policy and advocacy at the Welsh Refugee Council, said it was worrying that vulnerable people, many of who have been tortured and seen relatives killed, may have been treated badly after arriving in Wales. No Borders South Wales said the case of Ama Sumani - a 39-year-old Ghanaian, whose treatment for kidney failure at Cardiff's University Hospital of Wales was stopped when she was deported for breaching visa conditions - backed Ms Perrett's assessment of the office environment.
Source: WalesOnline
Other Sources:
Whistleblower's claims about Cardiff asylum office - BBC News
Border staff humiliate and trick asylum seekers - whistleblower - The Guardian
Asylum Seekers Claim to be Tricked and Humiliated by UK Border Agency - Emigrate.co.uk News
Ms Perrett was deployed to the city office last year after being taken on as a temp by Hays recruitment agency. The tone of her career was set on her first day, she claimed, when a manager allegedly said that if it was up to her asylum seekers would be shepherded outside and shot. She claimed it later emerged that senior staff members routinely shared anti-immigration views and that one employee had tested claims of ****** conscription by African boys by asking them to lie on the ground and demonstrate how people were shot. Ms Perrett said she had very little training, but was charged with making legally-binding decisions to grant or refuse asylum and whether to detain individuals and families for up to 28 days. She described her colleagues' alleged behaviour as humiliating and rude.
Kate Smart, director of policy and advocacy at the Welsh Refugee Council, said it was worrying that vulnerable people, many of who have been tortured and seen relatives killed, may have been treated badly after arriving in Wales. No Borders South Wales said the case of Ama Sumani - a 39-year-old Ghanaian, whose treatment for kidney failure at Cardiff's University Hospital of Wales was stopped when she was deported for breaching visa conditions - backed Ms Perrett's assessment of the office environment.
Source: WalesOnline
Other Sources:
Whistleblower's claims about Cardiff asylum office - BBC News
Border staff humiliate and trick asylum seekers - whistleblower - The Guardian
Asylum Seekers Claim to be Tricked and Humiliated by UK Border Agency - Emigrate.co.uk News
