A former Isis fighter smuggled himself into Britain on a small boat across the Channel, posing as a 17-year-old – despite being aged 42, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The man is thought to be the oldest person to pretend to be an unaccompanied minor and is understood to have spent up to a week in a local authority residential facility with other under-18s before his lies were exposed.
The Iraqi, named only as ‘AJ’, is a security threat because of his previous active service with the terror group in his own country.
He is staying in a three-star hotel along with other adult migrants as he appeals a decision – at taxpayers’ expense – to have him deported.
Yesterday, a Home Office spokesman described his case as one of the most ‘egregious examples’ of why this country must stop asylum-seekers crossing from France.
The revelation comes as Rishi Sunak granted a concession to 60 Tory rebel MPs by amending the Illegal Migration Bill – seen as vital to his ‘stop the boats’ pledge – to include compulsory age checks for those claiming they are children.
The MoS can reveal that ‘AJ’ arrived in late 2021, crossing the Channel in a small boat and using fake ID he bought online.
Despite his thick beard, receding hair and ‘numerous’ tattoos on his arms and neck, he applied for asylum as an Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Child and was put in local authority care in London.
But after suspicious officials checked his fingerprints against a Europe-wide database of asylum-seekers, his true identity was exposed and he was apprehended.
The MoS has learned that he was first encountered by US and UK security forces in Iraq in 2006 and recorded as a terrorist.
He is now on conditional bail and is fighting his deportation in a Legal Aid-funded case, claiming he is suffering from depression which can only be treated by the NHS and that deporting him to Iraq would breach his human rights.