Cop Killer Flees Britain Using Border Loophole

You really couldn't make this stuff up. A wanted criminal, cop killer to be specific, one of the most hunted men in the country, fled the UK's stringent border controls without using any fancy "Face Off" type surgery, or fake passport. He simply donned an Islamic ninja outfit/niqab, culturally worn by some Muslims and walked straight through the border without any officers checking to see if the girl in the passport, the criminals sister, was the same person cloaked away under the costume.
I'd ask whether the sister would be prosecuted for aiding a wanted criminal, but hey, I'm sure she knew nothing about it :

Mustaf Jama. Cop Killer Who Fled The UK Dressed As A Muslim Woman

An inquiry into Britain's shambolic border controls was demanded last night after a wanted man allegedly left the country disguised as a veiled Muslim woman.

David Davis, the shadow foreign secretary, said passport checks should require all travellers to show their faces whatever the religious sensitivities of doing so.

The row broke out after the disclosure this week that Mustaf Jama, who is wanted in connection with the murder of Pc Sharon Beshenivsky, may have escaped by dressing in a niqab, which covers the whole face except the eyes.

Jama, 26, is believed to have left for his native Somalia using his sister's passport. Although ports had been alerted, it is unlikely a veiled woman would have been asked to show her face during passport checks. Inspections are no longer carried out by immigration officers on a routine basis for departees.

Jama, whose brother, Yusuf Abdillh, 20, was convicted of Pc Beshenivsky's murder earlier this week, is believed to have fled over Christmas last year after the shooting in Bradford.

Mr Davis said: "The idea that under any circumstances you could be let through passport control wearing a veil is barely credible.

"Doing so when an all-points bulletin for murder has been issued demonstrates that our borders are not just porous but non-existent." He added: "The July 21 bombing plot suspect Osman Hussain also left the country when there was a bulletin out for him and went to Italy."

Shahid Malik, the Labour MP for Dewsbury, also called for an inquiry, saying: "This has got nothing to do with the veil. If it's true, which we don't yet know, and if it did happen, heads must roll."

Liam Byrne, the Home Office immigration minister, said: "It is standard practice for immigration officers to ask people to lift the veil — more than that, if immigration officers have got suspicions they fingerprint people and check them against our databases."

However, he admitted: "We don't have exit controls around the clock, around all of our borders; what we do make sure we do is respond immediately to police requests for those exit controls."

Airlines and airport staff carry out their own passport checks, however, they are not interested in border control but whether a passenger is likely to pose a risk on board.

A member of the airport staff or an airline employee does not have the power to ask a woman suspected of an offence to remove her veil.

The Home Office yesterday said ''intelligence-led" checks continued.

Last month they stopped 750 immigration offenders trying to leave Heathrow. The Government is proposing to reintroduce embarkation controls by 2009 to obtain a more accurate record of who enters or leaves.

Before the system was scrapped, about 60 per cent had their passports inspected. Most of those people leaving the country faced scrutiny to ensure they had not overstayed their visas and had fulfilled the conditions of their stay.
Link...