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"Sex-for-asylum" scandal rocks U.K. office

Jamie Doward and Mark Townsend

London: A "sex-for-asylum" scandal at the U.K.'s largest immigration processing centre has been uncovered, piling more pressure on a Government already reeling from a series of Home Office (Interior Ministry) bungles.

Evidence obtained by the London-based Observer reveals how a chief immigration officer at Lunar House in Croydon, south London, targeted an 18-year-old Zimbabwean rape victim over a two-week period in which he offered to help her with her application to claim asylum in the U.K. and made it clear that he would like to have sex with her.

Official suspended

On Saturday night, the Home Office announced it had suspended an official at the centre following the allegations and said it was launching a full investigation.

James Dawute (53), picked the teenage girl out of a queue of asylum seekers and asked for her telephone number, promising to help her with her application.

He encouraged her to meet him.

During the subsequent 90-minute meeting with the asylum seeker, he claimed he knew "how to win her case."

When asked for guarantees that he could help her, he tells her to come to a hotel with him. "I will tell you when we are alone because you are going to have sex," he said.

When confronted, Mr. Dawute denied attempting a sexual relationship with the teenager or offering to help her with her claim.

- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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