Sun man fails as asylum seeker

[Catalpa]

Just goes to show Britain's attempts the stop Bogus Asylum Seekers isn't completely useless!

Not quite anyway!

And then hey Ireland is only a Plane Journey away!

Sun man fails as asylum seeker

Chris Tryhorn and Claire Cozens
Tuesday April 12, 2005

A Sun journalist's attempt to gain entry to Britain posing as an asylum seeker came a cropper when his language skills were found wanting.
Reporter Brian Flynn, until recently the paper's New York correspondent, was questioned by immigration officers at Dover yesterday after claiming to be a refugee from Kosovo.
But when the officers summoned an interpreter, Flynn's inability to speak either of the region's languages, Serbo-Croat and Albanian, became all too apparent.
"We can confirm that some journalist posing as a clandestine immigrant was stopped at Dover by immigration officers," said a spokesman for the Home Office. "He was questioned and subsequently released."
A spokeswoman for the Sun declined to comment.
In May 2003, another journalist at the paper, Oliver Harvey, successfully claimed benefits posing as an asylum seeker.
Harvey pretended to be a Moldovan journalist fleeing state oppression, using the name Anatoly Tal and "hamming up" an east European accent when meeting officials.
In the article, Harvey explained how he avoided the trap Flynn fell into two years later.
"I said I was an ethnic Russian whose mother tongue was Russian. My interviewer asked: 'Do you need an interpreter?' I replied: 'No, no. My English is very good. I have a degree in English and media.' In fact, I was born in Hertfordshire and I don't speak a word of Russian."
He added that his knowledge of Moldova was "based on five minutes' study on the internet".
· To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857

[idefix]

See this smiley it's for you.

[TheBanned]

See this smiley it's for you.

Idefix, are you sure you aren't overcompensating a little?

[idefix]

See this smiley it's for you.

Idefix, are you sure you aren't overcompensating a little?

He used 2 smilies, I only used 1.

[FutureTaoiseach]

If he had have tried this country he would have had more success considering we are such a soft sponge on asylum,

[borderlinegenius]

If he had have tried this country he would have had more success considering we are such a soft sponge on asylum,

You're an idiot.

[FutureTaoiseach]

You're an idiot.

Moderators is this kind of insulting other posters allowed? I don't recall insulting him.

[borderlinegenius]

You constantly insult my intelligence, and everyone elses. Your post above is an apt demonstration of your rank stupidity and rabidly right-wing politics.

Does baby want the moderators to give him a doddy?

[FutureTaoiseach]

You constantly insult my intelligence, and everyone elses. Your post above is an apt demonstration of your rank stupidity and rabidly right-wing politics.

Does baby want the moderators to give him a doddy?

I have also preferred to argue on the basis of differing opinions and differing interpretations of facts, I have not insulted ppl.

This is a politics forum, not an insulting forum.

[borderlinegenius]

I suppose I could have engaged you and asked what a 'soft sponge' is (and whether there is such a thing as a 'hard sponge'). I suppose I could have asked you what sort of awful eijits you think work on processing asylum claims. I could have pointed out that McDowell is cracking down on immigrants.

I could have done all of that, but it was so much more succint to just call you an idiot, for that is indeed what you are, Mr. Taoiseach.