An asylum-seeking sex offender cost UK taxpayers nearly £100,000 after he was flown on a private jet. The Sri Lankan, 34, was jetted off on a 5,000-mile trip for medical treatment in the Middle East, paid for by the British taxpayer. The individual, who has not been named, is currently being held at the military base of Diego Garcia, according to the Mail on Sunday.
The man received emergency surgery before being flown on an aircraft costing tens of thousands of pounds. Officials are now discussing with five states that they should take in the man permanently, avoiding the public backlash he would face if he settled in the UK.
The individual reportedly tried to take his own life on the Chagos Islands after he was refused asylum in Britain - he lost a High Court appeal against the decision by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.
The failed asylum seeker is unable to return to his home country as the country’s military allegedly tortured him. He was one of a large group of Sri Lankans who left their country on a fishing boat in 2021 - the UK took in 61 of them.
The judge, Mr Justice Chamberlain, confirmed he never had legal rights to enter the UK, acknowledging the risks to public safety and confidence in the immigration system.
He said: “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 said: “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.”
