More than just a philosophical question in this day and age – we seem to have an answer. Reading the BBC online news today, it seems that the recompense for spending two days under wrongful detention is a measly £7,500. In a great example of how the “freedoms” we cherish in western democracies are being thrown away as the government panders to the fear generated by a largely right-wing media we get this news item:

A man accused of being an illegal immigrant while on holiday in Northern Ireland has been paid £7,500 after he was wrongly put in prison.
The Immigration Service wrongly detained the man in Maghaberry jail.
Frank Kakopa who is originally from Zimbabwe, was on a short break with his wife and young children in 2005, when he was stopped at Belfast City Airport.
Despite showing documentation that he lived and worked in England, he was taken to prison.
He was strip-searched and held for two days.
This had happened despite his manager in England confirming both his legal residency and employment position.

So, let me see if I understand this. Mr Kakopa was carrying the proper documentation for his residency status, his employer confirmed his residency and employment status yet the Immigration Service still strip searched him and detained him for two days.

What on Earth is going on here? Are we now so firmly entrenched into the habit of dismantling human rights that this news item is buried in a relative backwater are of the BBC (I only found it by chance – it hasn’t made any of the major news bulletins). Now, I have actually used Belfast City Airport (comically named “George Best Airport”…) and the staff there are, generally, officious, obnoxious and obstinate – however the thought of them deciding to detain me for two days despite being a British Citizen is mind boggling.

The lack of an outcry over this is equally shocking – I am sure if it had been a white businessman people like Lord Rees-Mogg would be the first to complain how we need to reinvigorate our human rights approaches.  As this person seems to meet all the criteria for an outrage – a professional worker (structural engineer) travelling with his family – I can only assume that his detention, and the total lack of news about it, is entirely related to his skin colour. (Not an original assessment, I agree – even the BBC article implies it…)

The article continues:

Mr Kakopa, a structural engineer, said the experience still haunted him. His family were left at the airport and Mr Kakopa said he had no idea what had happened to them.
“They wouldn’t allow me to make phone calls – I was actually detached from the world,” he said.
“I did not know where my kids were taken to.”
“It is still difficult to believe that what was supposed to be a relaxing break for my family turned out to be our worst nightmare.”
“I was locked up with convicted criminals, having committed no crime, while my wife and young children were left abandoned at the airport of a strange country worrying about where I was and how I was being treated.”

In some respects Mr Kakopa is very, very lucky in that he was carrying a lot of proof and documentation – if for whatever reason he had left one of the critical documents at home in England, he may have found himself detained indefinitely until the Immigration Service deported him. Wouldn’t that have been good? I wonder, how much the out of court settlement would have been then…

All my life, I have read about this sort of behaviour in “foreign” countries, and it normally accompanies some diatribe about how this is proof [insert dictatorship] is a bad regime etc. It is the sort of you expect to hear the evil Commies doing, or Mugabe or Korea. But good old Blighty? Shocking. No wonder the home office declined to comment – what could they ever say which would justify detaining someone who was carrying the correct documentation.

In this day an age, a mistake (or malicious act) by the immigration and security personnel is not a trivial thing. These unelected, barely accountable people have the power to detain without trial or deport people without reason. Despite this already shocking state of affairs we seem to be sleepwalking into granting them more and more powers – all while removing what little safeguards remain.

A very sad state of affairs. I wonder who really won the cold war…