Sex attacker seeking asylum in the UK is flown 5,000 miles by private jet flight for emergency medical treatment at the taxpayers’ expense

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Tried reading the article and there’s absolutely no sources for anything. Not sure if this is a bug, but the links in the text just send you to unrelated articles. Given the Mail’s track record with disinformation, I have my doubts that this really happened or at least that the DM hasn’t heavily embellished it.

Surely if this is an actual issue, you can find a better source than the Daily Mail?

… and this is part of why the UK Government is so desperate to get rid of their control over these islands.

There was a person, in need of emergency medical care, and the local Government was obligated to provide it.

If he had been imprisoned in the UK they would have done the same, except it would have been a lot easier because there would be hospitals nearby.

But because he was being detained on an island in the middle of nowhere with no medical services available, the Government had to fly him 5,000 miles to get treatment.

While the UK has sovereignty over the islands, people like this guy are ultimately the UK Government’s problem, because the UK Government controls the BIOT Government.

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Anyway, the judgment in the case (upholding the decision to refuse him leave to enter the UK) is [here](https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2025/370.html) for anyone interested. Trigger warnings for a whole load of bad stuff (which the Mail is downplaying a bit).

The guy is from Sri Lanka, “was tortured and sexually abused by Sri Lankan military personnel” as a teenager, fled to India, and was one of the people on a boat that left India to try to get to Canada to claim asylum. The boat was escorted by the Royal Navy to Diego Garcia, and those people were largely stranded there until the recent decisions to resettle them in the UK (and anywhere else that will take them). Note that the BIOT court has ruled this amounted to “unlawful detention.”

The BIOT Government (under the Conservatives) accepted his asylum claim. So a UK(ish) Government has granted him asylum, just in BIOT, not in the UK. Which is obviously a problem.

> The claimant was initially accommodated in the main camp at Thunder Cove. He struggled with his mental health from the outset. His medical records mention suicidal ideation, anxiety and depression from September 2022. In April 2023, he self-harmed by swallowing a fishing hook and razor blade. In May 2023, he attempted to drown himself. In June 2023, he set fire to a tent while inside it. In July 2023, he removed his clothing, cut his neck and wrists with a razor blade and began striking himself with a chair.

> At this point the claimant was relocated from the main camp to a laundry room. This was a concrete room which on one side was open to the elements save for a wire mesh, so that the claimant could be observed. He shared this room with another migrant for three months and occupied it alone for a further five months.

Again, we see why keeping people on Diego Garcia is probably not the best. They do not have facilities there to deal with people like him.

> On 31 May 2024, the claimant was convicted before Diego Garcia Magistrates’ Court of arson (committed in June 2023, when he set light to his own tent) and four offences of sexual assault on an adult woman (committed while in the main camp in January 2023). On 3 June 2024, he was sentenced to 20 months’ imprisonment, suspended for 12 months. At this point, he was returned briefly to the main camp and then to the STHF. While in the STHF, he was under constant surveillance, but continued to self-harm, swallowing coins on 12 July 2024 and a piece of hard copper wire on 19 August 2024. The latter necessitated his medical evacuation to Bahrain for treatment.

> On 17 October 2024, the claimant was convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The offence was committed in May 2023, when he tried to drown himself and then assaulted a security officer who came to his aid. The BIOT Magistrates’ Court accepted that the offence had occurred during the course of a genuine suicide attempt, but imposed an immediate custodial sentence of 24 weeks’ imprisonment. He was initially detained on his own at the Diego Garcia police station in a small cell with no natural light. He experienced auditory hallucinations and banged his head against the wall.

So yes… this is a mess. He is stuck on BIOT, he is the BIOT Government’s problem (and thus the UK Government’s), the BIOT Government has determined he is eligible for asylum, but no one wants to take him (for obvious reasons).