British troops in Afghanistan helping control asylum claims, says minister

Mr Woolas was appearing before the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, which also heard that the Home Office may have unwittingly granted asylum in the UK to members of the Taliban.

www.telegraph.co.uk

British troops are partly fighting in Afghanistan to help control migration to the UK, Phil Woolas, the immigration minister claimed.

Mr Woolas warned the number of asylum seekers would “significantly increase” if the Taliban were to win back power but that role of the military deployment was “not aired strongly enough”.

The comments were immediately attacked as “extraordinary” and “unpalatable” on the day it emerged five British soldiers were shot dead by an Afghan policeman, possibly linked to the Taliban.

Mr Woolas was appearing before the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, which also heard that the Home Office may have unwittingly granted asylum in the UK to members of the Taliban.

The minister said he could not answer the question because those claiming asylum “tend not to tell us” if they were in the Taliban.

More than 3,500 people claimed asylum from Afghanistan in 2008.

But Mr Woolas then told the MPs: “If this country and others were to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan and the Taliban were able to take control of Afghanistan our evidence is that the number of asylum seekers coming to the EU would significantly increase.

“An argument that is not aired strongly enough in my view is the benefit of the presence of our armed forces and other countries’ is to help us control immigration.”

Patrick Mercer, a Tory member of the committee and former Army officer, later said:”I find the statement by the minister extraordinary.

“Armed forces are for the conduct of war in all its phases. They are not there to control immigration.

“This is yet another distortion of what our troops are trying to achieve in this theatre.”

Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman said: “Phil Woolas’s point is tasteless and disrespectful on a day when five of our brave soldiers in Afghanistan have lost their lives.

“He just underlines that the Government does not have clear objectives in this conflict, and we need urgently to be told the strategy for success.”

During the hearing into the immigration system, it was claimed members of the Taliban had successfully claimed asylum in Britain.

David Davies, a Conservative MP, said he had come across a Taliban asylum seeker in London. Read more…

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