Travel bans considered to stop Britons training for terrorism
overseas
BRITAIN: Criminals in Britain could be barred from traveling to
countries suspected of harbouring terrorist camps after officials
confirmed the leader of a 2005 bombing plot had been allowed to go to
Pakistan despite facing minor charges in Britain.
Failed bomber Muktar Said Ibrahim was an Eritrean refugee given a
British passport in 2004 - a fact that has fueled debate in Britain over
border controls and immigration.
Ibrahim, 29, was among four men sentenced Wednesday to a minimum of
40 years in prison over the failed bombings, which were attempted two
weeks after the July 7, 2005 suicide attacks that killed 52 commuters on
three London subway cars and a bus.
British authorities had granted Ibrahim British citizenship and
allowed him to travel freely although he had prior convictions for
assault and, at the time of a 2004 trip to Pakistan, had been charged
and due to appear before a court over a disturbance that occurred while
he was distributing extremist leaflets.
Concerns about terrorist activity rose sharply in Britain at the end
of June, when two bomb-laden cars were found unexploded in London’s
entertainment district, and the next day two men drove a Jeep carrying
gas canisters into the front of Glasgow airport.
The only injury in those attacks was a suspect in the Jeep who
suffered severe burns. Hours after Ibrahim and the three others were
sentenced on Wednesday, Britain’s opposition Conservative Party released
figures showing 1 million immigrants had been granted citizenship over
the last 10 years, and said that was too many to allow proper background
checks.
“We need to be absolutely sure that each one is going to be someone
who wants to play a positive role in this country,” said Damien Green,
the Conservative spokesman on immigration.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown had demanded action to curb the number of
Britons, including naturalized immigrants, receiving extremist training
overseas.
He also told lawmakers Wednesday that laws introduced since 2004
allow immigration officers to take into account juvenile crimes, meaning
that Ibrahim - who had a juvenile record - might not have been granted
citizenship now.
Brown chaired a meeting Thursday of a new national security
committee, drawing together officials from the MI5 and MI6 intelligence
agencies, defense ministry, police and key Cabinet ministers.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has been ordered to examine possible
restrictions on the travel of those convicted of terrorism and other
offenses as part of a review of terror laws.
Officers stopped Ibrahim for questioning at Heathrow Airport in 2004
as he left with two other men for Islamabad. The officers discovered a
large amount of cash and a first-aid manual with heavily marked passages
on treating gunshot wounds.
All three were allowed to leave Britain. Security officials said they
were notified when Ibrahim returned to Britain and they later conducted
some low-level inquiries into his activities.
Investigators suspect, but have been unable to prove, that Ibrahim
joined a training camp in Pakistan alongside the ringleader of the July
7 attacks.
A Foreign Office official, briefing reporters last year under the
ministry’s anonymity rules, said dozens of British Muslims travel from
Britain to Pakistan every year to attend terrorist training camps.
Any legislation to restrict travel “may need to go wider than just
terrorist offenses,” Brown’s spokesman Michael Ellam said. He said no
decisions had been made on which countries might be included.
Experts in asylum said laws governing immigration were already
strict, and that the rules had been tightened in the last three years.
Asylum seekers in Britain are fingerprinted, photographed and can be
detained if they are thought to be a national security risk, said
Stephen Rylance, spokesman for Refugee Action, a refugee advocacy group.
London, Friday, AP |
