The broken immigration system is now becoming dangerous.
The case of Ahmed Ali Alid, the Moroccan asylum seeker who was this week found guilty of murdering a stranger in a rampage motivated by the conflict in Gaza, highlights just how broken Britain’s immigration system has become.
The 45-year-old, who entered the UK illegally via the Netherlands in 2020, attempted to kill his housemate, a Christian convert, by knifing him in his bed as he slept.
He then prowled the streets of Hartlepool until he came across Terence Carney, 70, who was out for a morning walk, attacking him and stabbing him to death.
Alid told police after his arrest that the attack was “for the people of Gaza” and that, if he had had access to a machine gun, he would have killed more people.
During the police interview, he attacked two female officers, yelling “Palestine” and “Allahu Akbar” as he grabbed one of them and wrestled her to the ground, causing his solicitor to dial 999.
The tragedy of this case is that there would have been multiple chances to stop Alid. He had been in the country for several years, having previously spent more than a decade roaming around Europe.
Had his presence in the UK been properly interrogated, it would have been discovered that he had left Morocco in 2007 after having a “problem” with the intelligence services, and that he had been refused asylum in Germany.
(According to the UN Refugee Agency, 94 per cent of asylum applications from Morocco are rejected – presumably because it’s actually a safe country where Sir Richard Branson has a home).
Asked during his trial if he had been successful in applying for asylum during the three years he spent in “dispersal” lodgings in Hartlepool, he said: “I didn’t have any answer”. So he was basically left to kill.
How many other people have entered the UK illegally, and pose a similar threat to the safety and wellbeing of the British public?
The Home Office already has some serious questions to answer – as does the Ministry of Justice, which ultimately oversees legal aid. I can disclose that Alid received such help to fund his defence. Is that really the best use of public money? DT.
The Home Office already has some serious questions to answer – as does the Ministry of Justice, which ultimately oversees legal aid