Belfast stabbing suspect granted asylum via fast-track scheme without interview
Hadi Alodid, 30, was granted refugee status under a streamlined process that required only a questionnaire. He is now charged with the attempted murder of Stephen Ogilvie in Belfast.
Belfast attack suspect received asylum under no-interview scheme
Hadi Alodid, 30, the man charged with the attempted murder of Stephen Ogilvie in Belfast, was granted asylum through a fast-track process that did not require him to attend a face-to-face interview, independent.co.uk reports. Because of his Sudanese nationality, Alodid only had to complete a Home Office questionnaire, citing the "security and humanitarian situation" in Sudan.
Alodid travelled from Sudan to Paris, then on to Dublin, before catching a bus to Belfast in February 2023. Once in the Republic of Ireland, he was able to cross into Northern Ireland without routine immigration checks under the Common Travel Area (CTA), the arrangement that allows free movement between the United Kingdom and Ireland. He was subsequently granted refugee status and five years' leave to remain in the UK, valid until 2028.
He appeared by video-link at Belfast Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, charged with the attempted murder of Ogilvie.
The streamlined asylum process
The Streamlined Asylum Process (SAP) was introduced while Rishi Sunak was prime minister, with the aim of doubling the weekly number of asylum claims processed and reducing the backlog. It applied to applicants from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Libya, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — countries where the asylum grant rate stood at "over 95%", according to guidance published at the time. The higher grant rate was used to justify a less rigorous process in order to save caseworkers' time.
The Tory home secretary at the time, Suella Braverman, and immigration minister Robert Jenrick have both since joined Reform UK. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch told LBC Radio that she was neither leader nor a Home Office minister when the policy was enacted. "All I can do is apologise to people," she said. "The people who enacted that policy have now run to Reform and are pretending they had nothing to do with it. The rest of us are here trying to clean the mess up. Our kindness has been exploited. There was an assumption, certainly amongst the civil service, but even within the political class, that everybody claiming asylum was genuine. This is naive. We need to get tough."
Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn told BBC Breakfast that the SAP scheme had been put in place by the previous Conservative government "in part because they completely lost control of immigration." He added that applicants are now interviewed in almost all cases. "Anyone who applies now is properly processed. Their details are taken and everybody is checked against the security databases," Benn said.
No such streamlined schemes, which allow asylum seekers from any country to avoid an interview, are currently in operation, it is understood.
CTA used as a back route
The case has drawn attention to the use of the CTA as an entry route into the UK. Home Office figures show that the UK removed only one migrant under an asylum returns deal signed with Ireland in 2020. That informal returns agreement was signed and subsequently paused under the previous government.
Gaps in published data mean the total number of asylum seekers travelling via Ireland into the UK — or in the opposite direction — remains unknown.
The Government is now preparing to step up efforts to prevent the CTA from being used as an unofficial back route into the country. A minister told the Lords that 1,500 enforcement operations linked to illegal immigration had been carried out in Northern Ireland over the past twelve months, resulting in more than 1,200 arrests. Cabinet Office minister Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent said: "It is something this Government takes very, very seriously."
Source: The Sun