A sex offender seeking asylum in Britain was flown 5,000 miles by private jet for medical treatment in the Middle East at taxpayers’ expense, according to reports.
The Sri Lankan, 34, who is being held on the secret military base of Diego Garcia, received emergency surgery before being returned on the aircraft at a total cost of nearly £100,000, the Mail on Sunday said.
Diplomats are trying to find a third country prepared to take the man permanently to avoid the public outcry which would greet his settlement in the UK.
The individual, who has not been identified, tried to take his own life on the Chagos Islands after losing a High Court appeal against Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s decision to refuse him asylum.
As a Tamil, he says he is unable to return to his homeland after allegedly being tortured by the country’s military.
Mr Justice Chamberlain accepted that he never had any legal right to enter the UK and the risks to public safety and confidence in the immigration system were “real”.
Issuing his judgment, he declared: “Admitting the claimant in these high-profile circumstances would tend to undermine the UK’s international commitment to tackling violence against women and girls.
“The task of evaluating the weight and importance of avoiding these risks falls, in the first instance, to ministers, not judges.
“Given the nature of the risks in question, the court should allow a wide margin to the democratically accountable ministers who, together with their officials, performed it.”
A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesman told the Standard: “This Government inherited a deeply troubling situation that remained unresolved under the last administration for years after the migrants’ arrival on Diego Garcia.
“There are no commercial flights to the Diego Garcia base, meaning medical evacuation requires medevac transport.
“We do not comment on specific cases.”
