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11-01-03 Scotsman Scottish terror suspects were refugees By GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN SIX men charged with terrorist offences in a Scottish court had entered the UK by claiming asylum, it has emerged. The asylum-seeker status of the six men - three from Edinburgh and three from London - was revealed to The Scotsman by intelligence sources last night. It follows confirmation that at least two men arrested in London this week in connection with the discovery of the poison ricin had also entered the country as asylum-seekers. There are suggestions the cases could lead to a review of Britain's immigration policy to remove any loopholes which might exist. Last night, a source said: "All of these men came here claiming asylum. There are, of course, many genuine cases, but our asylum system weakens our defences and makes us vulnerable to hostile regimes." The news came as it was claimed that senior government officials advised ministers to lock up all asylum seekers on arrival as a safety measure. It emerged this week that at least two out of seven men arrested in London in connection with the manufacture of ricin in a flat above a shop were asylum seekers living on benefits. A council flat, provided rent-free to two of the men, had been turned into a chemical factory to make the lethal poison, for which there is no antidote. The intelligence source claimed that abuses of asylum were becoming commonplace: "In recent months, we have had to take a great deal of interest in a significant number of people who have entered our country claiming asylum. "There is concern at a very high level about the ease with which they enter, receive support through state benefits and often disappear. "Some terror groups seem to operate a policy at present that is utterly ruthless. They come to the host country, often generate considerable resources through criminal enterprise like fraud, usually secure multiple identities, then they use those resources to sponsor terrorism against the host country. "It seems to be too easy for people to enter the UK, often literally in the back of a lorry. The whole system has to be looked at again." Investigators are now believed to have linked the men arrested in London after the ricin scare to nine Algerians and Moroccans arrested in Paris before Christmas and suspected of having links to the al-Qaeda network. Meanwhile, businesses in Scotland have been warned to be on guard against terrorist attacks after the discovery of the ricin factory. Similar warnings have gone out in London. Wyevale, Britain's biggest chain of garden centres, has acted to cut the supply of the castor plant seeds from which ricin can be extracted, even though the UK's climate means the plant will only produce beans about once every ten years. The firm, which has 124 centres across the UK, said it was taking them all out of circulation "in light of recent events". Yesterday, anti-terrorist police were continuing to question seven men in connection with the ricin terror plot, while a nationwide hunt continued for remaining suspects feared to be holding more of the poison. It was claimed last night that government ministers were advised to lock up all asylum seekers on arrival as a safety measure in the weeks after the 11 September atrocities. The Times published details of a memo, which it claimed came from "senior civil servants" in the Home Office, stating that only a draconian clampdown of this sort could prevent terrorists from abusing the asylum system . But the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, dismissed the suggestion as "absurd" . In the US, it emerged that the FBI had issued a special bulletin alerting US police to the dangers of the deadly toxin.
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................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved. |
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