The British Home Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, has granted refugee status to two former passengers from the Afghan airlines hijack which ended peacefully at Stansted Airport last month, he announced yesterday.
He rejected 27 other appeals for asylum and the fate of the remainder of the other 50 passengers is either the subject of criminal charges or, in six cases, a decision has been postponed.
Referring to the 27 rejected applications in a parliamentary answer, Mr Straw said he was "not satisfied that they have a well-founded fear of persecution" in Afghanistan. "In these cases, I have decided that the public interest in deterring future hijacks for the purposes of claiming asylum is a very strong one and, therefore, I have decided that they should not be given permission to stay in this country," he said. Preparations were under way, he added, to send the 27 to other countries "given the current situation in Afghanistan".
Mr Straw explained that the wife of one of the two people granted asylum was also being given exceptional leave to enter Britain. Their five children will also be allowed to stay in Britain. "In both cases, as it happens, the applicants' case for asylum had arisen before they boarded the flight, and it was a matter of chance for them that it was hijacked," he said. "In considering each of these claims, I have taken proper account of the United Kingdom's obligations under the 1951 Convention. I have taken account of all necessary legal requirements. These requirements are such that it would have been improper in the cases I have considered for me to take into account at that stage other factors, such as the need to deter future hijackers, and I have not done so," Mr Straw said.
Highlighting the need to deter hijackers, Mr Straw said the events surrounding the Stansted Airport hijack had shown "serious weaknesses" in the way in which international conventions relating to refugees, terrorism and human rights operated. "We shall be raising our concerns with like-minded countries and with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees," he said.