By GB News (World News) | Created at 2025-03-30 14:49:22 | Updated at 2025-04-01 14:22:00
1 day ago
A Sri Lankan sex offender seeking asylum in the UK was flown 5,000 miles by private jet for medical treatment in the Middle East at British taxpayers' expense.
The clandestine operation was launched after the man, 34, made an apparent suicide attempt on the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean.
He was flown to an unknown Middle Eastern country where he received emergency surgery before being returned on the same jet.
The total cost to British taxpayers was nearly £100,000.
The operation came after the migrant lost a High Court appeal against Home Secretary Yvette Cooper's decision to refuse him asylum.
The migrant lost a High Court appeal against Home Secretary Yvette Cooper's decision to refuse him asylum
PA
The sex offender was flown to a unknown Middle Eastern country where he received emergency surgery before being returned on the same jet (file photo)
GETTY
The migrant was not allowed into Britain because of a six-month sentence he received for assault and sex attacks committed while on Diego Garcia
REUTERS
Ministers have also been negotiating with Mauritian authorities to prevent the Chagos Islands from becoming a backdoor route into the UK - despite a looming "surrender" deal.
One diplomatic source said: "The public deserves to know about this ridiculous use of their money - being spent giving world-class private medical treatment to sex offenders in Diego Garcia and flying them around by private jet."
The source added that questions over British sovereignty of the Chagos Islands had complicated such cases.
A Foreign Office spokesman responded: "This Government inherited a deeply troubling situation that remained unresolved under the last administration for years after the migrants' arrival on Diego Garcia."
