THE dodgy official at the centre of an illegal immigration scam was suspended from his job yesterday. Home Office worker Joseph Dzumbira, 35, got the axe after The Sun exposed him for helping bogus asylum seekers enter Britain for cash.
He now faces a criminal investigation and every case he has been involved in will be urgently reviewed.
Yesterday we revealed how Zimbabwean Dzumbira boasted to our undercover reporter that he charged up to £2,000 to provide fake IDs and papers for illegals.
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Dodgy deal ... Dzumbira shows papers to reporter
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And last night it emerged that he HIMSELF is an asylum seeker who arrived here six years ago.
He applied to stay a year after coming from his homeland and was granted indefinite leave to remain.
He has worked for years at the Home Office’s scandal-ridden Lunar House centre in Croydon, South London, handling thousands of other asylum seekers’ applications.
His biggest scam was pretending that people of other nationalities were “Zims” — Zimbabweans seeking refuge from torture in their own country.
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Official papers ... documents shown by corrupt officer
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There was no sign of Dzumbira yesterday at his shabby flat in Southend, Essex. The curtains remained firmly drawn and no one answered the door.
The inquiry into his activities was launched after The Sun gave the Home Office a dossier of evidence.
A spokesman said: “He has been suspended from working for the Home Office while the investigation is on-going.There is a criminal investigation. All previous cases in which he has had involvement will be reviewed.”
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Scandals ... Home Office centre
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The inquiry will be conducted by the immigration service’s Security and Anti-Corruption Unit. Its staff include a detective constable seconded from the Met.
Last night Shadow Immigration Minister Damian Green congratulated The Sun.
He said: “Your report was a good piece of investigative journalism. Now it is time for ministers to act.”
Earlier this year we exposed a sex-for-visas scandal at Lunar House.
We later uncovered how an official suspended in that investigation, James Dawute, 53, arrived from Ghana as a visitor then stayed on unlawfully when his visa expired.
Home Secretary John Reid, who has unveiled plans to revamp the entire Immigration and Nationality Directorate, said: “We take all such allegations very seriously and investigate them all.
“We have got around 250 under investigation at the moment. Thirty people have been disciplined and 20 referred to prosecution.”
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What's your view on dodgy immigration official?
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| Maybe it could be arranged so that he will be deported to Zimbabwe! Peter
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| I’m so disappointed with Dzumbira for his activities and it’s bad for real asylum seekers from Zimbabwe. Mercy Mahachi
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| What a shame to do this when genuine Zimbabweans are suffering. He is messing up things and should be punished. Jan
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| The Home Office is laughable - first we hear their cleaners are illegal immigrants, now this. It makes you wonder what other skeletons are in the cupboard! Elizabeth and Stephen |
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