On 22 July last year, in Nuneaton, a 12-year-old girl was playing on the swings. There she was spotted by Ahmad Mulakhil, an Afghan asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK four months previously. At the time, Mulakhil was staying in a taxpayer-funded House of Multiple Occupation (HMO). The Afghan followed the girl, and was recorded on a Ring doorbell saying ‘you’re very small’ to her. Mulakhil then took her to a grassy area beside garages at the end of a cul-de-sac, where he threatened to kill the girl’s family before repeatedly raping her. From CCTV evidence we know that this lasted for around 80 minutes. The Afghan recorded parts of the assault. Afterwards he took the girl with him to a shop where he bought a can of Red Bull using his Home Office-issued debit card. The girl escaped and Mulakhil was caught four days later because police were able to trace that transaction. Yesterday, he was convicted of rape, two counts of sexual assault, child abduction and taking an indecent video of the girl. Mulakhil had admitted to one count of oral rape, after police found an image on his phone, before the trial began.
Despite the best efforts of the state to keep it quiet, the evidence suggests that migrants from certain countries are creating a wave of crime, particularly sexual assaults and rapes
Another victim. Another one of our children violated. A 12-year-old girl raped in by an Afghan here as a guest in our country, being housed, clothed, fed and funded by British taxpayers. He will receive a prison sentence, and may be deported. It’s not enough. Men like this who rape vulnerable children should hang. But these crimes are far from isolated incidents and are the result of policy. Despite the best efforts of the state to keep it quiet, the evidence is that migrants from certain countries are creating a wave of crime, particularly sexual assaults and rapes.
The Afghan men who come here are particularly dangerous. This should not be a surprise. Afghanistan is infamously a terrible country for women and girls, so it is entirely predictable that young Afghan men housed in our country will behave in this way.
This is why, again and again, we read stories about an ‘Afghan migrant’ sexually assaulting a sleeping woman, or sexually assaulting two women and trying to sexually assault a third, or two Afghan migrants abducting and raping a 15 year old girl.
The data supports this. It suggests that Afghans in Britain are between 14.5 to 22 times more likely to be convicted of sex crimes. They present a vastly disproportionate risk to British women and girls. Our current policy is to import tens of thousands of men who pose a very great risk of committing sexual offences, and then wait to see which ones do so. Then we put those men on trial and jail them at great expense, and hope that we might be able to deport them at some point. We are so wedded to a flawed idea of individual justice that we aren’t willing to consider the risk the average Afghan migrant poses.
We can’t even begin to assess the individual risk. Rob Bates, director of the Centre for Migration Control told me that ‘the nature of Afghanistan’s institutions means we will not have been able to gather a full understanding of Afghan citizens’ backgrounds, nor of any potential criminality or security threats they may pose’.
This has to end. We can’t keep letting these men in and waiting to see which ones will rape children. Our current policy is neither wise nor moral. Those who advocate for it, who demand our borders remain open, and who urge us to welcome ever more dangerous migrants like to believe they are good and virtuous but they are causing a very great evil to be done to our nation. The doctrine of ‘kindness’ is nothing of the sort.
It’s time for serious decisions. Afghan migrants pose far too great a risk. They should not be here. Politicians need to be brave, to step forward and say that we must close our borders to Afghans, and that those who are here must be deported.
As Rob Bates says, ‘other European countries return individuals to Afghanistan, it is time Britain does the same – the Afghan population in this country is predominantly made up of asylum seekers or those resettled in the country. Refugee status is not permanent and we are under no long term obligations.’
Germany has agreed a removals deal with the Taliban. We can as well. In the meantime these men must be held securely, not allowed to live in hotels and HMOs where they can attack children. Then we will be certain that there will be no more Afghan rapes of children they find playing on swings.
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