A Predator's Free Pass Through Britain's Borders

A 35-year-old Iranian man with 11 prior convictions for violent assaults in Germany entered the UK illegally by small boat in 2023, only to rape a 15-year-old girl in an Oxford alleyway less than a year later. Despite an earlier UK arrest for sexual assault that year—dropped for lack of evidence—he remained at large until convicted and sentenced to 12.5 years in prison. This case exposes the chasm between Home Office claims of robust border security and the reality of unchecked risks to public safety.

Mofrad’s German record, spanning assaults and actual bodily harm from 2014 to 2019, should have flagged him during any standard immigration vetting. Yet UK authorities failed to access or act on this information upon his arrival. The dropped 2023 sexual assault case compounded the oversight, allowing him to integrate into communities without safeguards.

The victim’s mother directly questioned the Home Secretary: why was this man permitted entry and freedom? Her letter highlights a fundamental procedural void—immigration checks prioritize asylum claims over criminal history verification, especially for small boat arrivals. In 2023 alone, over 45,000 such crossings occurred, straining a system already ill-equipped for thorough background probes.

Judge Maria Lamb deemed Mofrad a “significant risk” of reoffending, a assessment rooted in his pattern of violence. Mitigation from his defense cited potential death penalty fears in Iran for renouncing Islam, underscoring how asylum rules can shield repeat offenders. This leniency persists despite evidence that foreign national offenders commit serious crimes at rates disproportionate to their population share—Home Office data shows 12% of prisoners are foreign-born.

Vetting Failures Across Administrations

Britain’s immigration framework has faltered under successive governments, from Labour’s post-1997 expansions to Conservative tightenings that proved unenforceable. Pre-2023, the Illegal Migration Act aimed to deter crossings but did not retroactively screen existing arrivals like Mofrad. The current Labour administration inherited this backlog, yet early deportations of foreign national offenders—5,179 in their first year—lag behind the 13,000 annual target, leaving gaps unaddressed.

Public records reveal similar lapses: in 2022, a Syrian asylum seeker with a Turkish conviction for child rape was granted status before attacking a UK woman. These incidents form a pattern, not anomalies, driven by overloaded asylum processing—over 100,000 cases pending as of mid-2024. Resource shortages mean criminal database shares with EU nations, like Germany’s, occur post-arrival at best, often too late.

The human cost lands on ordinary citizens. The Oxford girl’s trauma, described by her mother as a “life sentence,” manifests in lifelong psychological scars and family disintegration. Knife crime and sexual assaults have risen 20% since 2019, per ONS data, with migrant-linked cases fueling community tensions in areas like Oxfordshire, where under-18s now navigate heightened fears.

Deportation Promises Versus Delivery

Home Office statements vow deportation for criminal migrants, citing 35,000 removals in their first year. Yet this figure includes voluntary returns and failed asylum seekers, not just offenders—only 10% target convicted criminals. Mofrad’s case, with its international warrant potential, exemplifies delays: even post-conviction, deportation hinges on Iranian cooperation, which rarely materializes for those claiming persecution.

Institutional inertia benefits no one but the dysfunctional status quo. Officials face no personal repercussions for vetting failures; the same personnel cycle through roles across parties. This accountability vacuum ensures problems recur, from the 2010s Windrush scandals to today’s small boat crises.

Britain’s decline accelerates when borders become sieves for the violent. A system that admits predators under asylum pretexts erodes social cohesion, burdens justice resources, and shatters trust in state protection. Ordinary families pay the price for elite detachment from these realities, a fracture deepening with every unheeded warning.