Muslim Civil Servants Not Welcome

"In front of us, they would refer to the immigrants that they'd arrested as 'chinkees', 'niggers' etc. They'd call black people 'spear-chuckers' and 'savages'..."

Jamil Ahmed, was employed by the Home Office from 1992 until 2007. Whilst a senior immigration officer, he launched a race discrimination case against the Immigration and Nationality Department in 2004 and was subsequently sacked by the Home Office over fabricated claims of 'gross misconduct'. In this exclusive interview with al-istiqamah.com, Mr Ahmed sets the record straight regarding his case and describes the institutionalised racism experienced by him and other non-white civil servants.

Al-Istiqamah: Mr Ahmed, could you please give our readers a bit of background to the case?

Mr Ahmed: I was working in the Crime Investigation Section (Beckett House) at that time. We dealt with criminal investigations and I was the only Asian in the department. Then I got my friend Raja a job there, helped him apply etc. So there were two of us. Now with regards to racism, this is an organisation that I'd say is about 20 years behind the police when it comes to using derogatory terms against all nationalities. In front of us, they would refer to the immigrants that they'd arrested as 'chinkees', 'niggers' etc.

Al-Istiqamah: Would they ever use the word 'Paki'?

Mr Ahmed: They wouldn't say 'Paki' when we were present, but the racist comments were definitely happening. They'd call black people 'spear-chuckers' and 'savages'. I heard those words on numerous occasions. Even just prior to when I joined the team, a senior manager had posters on the office wall with racist terminology referring to black people. A member of staff had complained, but nothing was done.

Al-Istiqamah: What sort of colleagues were you working with?

Mr Ahmed: You have to realize that in these civil servant jobs, the majority of my colleagues were white working class... chavs. For these people, working in immigration is an ideal job. They get well-paid to throw their weight about and get away with racism when dealing with immigrants.

Al-Istiqamah: What made you lodge a case against the Home Office?

Mr Ahmed: My case started over a minor thing. Myself and Raja were out working. The British Transport police arrested someone in Barking (East London). So we went down to do a search of the house. It was an Indian chap. Raja drove me in his Honda EXI 2.2. He was driving a bit fast, but we had the police driving alongside us, so it was all right. We had a white colleague in the car with us. He was a new guy who'd just started and he was an ex-police officer. We did our job and went back to the office. Now this guy went back and told one of the managers that Raja was driving really fast. But because I had spoken my mind in the past and they didn't like that, the manager comes up to me and says that I was the one driving dangerously! I said "Hold on. You've got the wrong person. I wasn't driving. I was sitting in the passenger seat. So you shouldn't be accusing me." And even Raja, he wasn't driving dangerously anyway.

Al-Istiqamah: They were just looking for an excuse to get rid of you?

Mr Ahmed: Yes. We had 3 police officers with us. If we were driving recklessly, they would have pulled us up for speeding or reckless driving. In the end my manager told the colleague that he shouldn't have reported the incident, as it wasn't necessary. Later on, we got a phone call and were told to report to a chief immigration officer. I explained the situation, but he wasn't willing to listen to my side.

Al-Istiqamah: What action was taken?

Mr Ahmed: We were both suspended, even though there had been another officer - a white officer - who had previously been accused of driving dangerously, yet no disciplinary action was taken over him.

Al-Istiqamah: You were suspended on full pay?

Mr Ahmed: We were, but the main issue is not the pay. There's a stigma attached once you've been suspended. It affects your career prospects.

Al-Istiqamah: What happened next?

Mr Ahmed: Raja and I took the issue to the Union. When the Union looked into the matter, they realized that the allegations were unfounded with regards to the incident. However instead of issuing an apology, they tried to do a cover-up.

Al-Istiqamah: David Blunkett was Home Secretary at the time, wasn't he?

Mr Ahmed: He was. He himself had been quoted in the news as having said that young asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Kosovo and other war-torn countries should "get back home", and that he had "no sympathy" for them.

Al-Istiqamah: So you were really working amidst a background of institutionalised racism?

Mr Ahmed: Exactly. Eventually they reinstated us.

Al-Istiqamah: What was it like, being back at work?

Mr Ahmed: We weren't really accepted. I was one of the more senior members, so I'd always had a hectic schedule, members of staff would come to me for advice. When I returned, none of my colleagues were talking to me. Obviously they'd all discussed our case whilst we'd been suspended.

Al-Istiqamah: The atmosphere was more hostile?

Mr Ahmed: Definitely. I'll give you an example. For years, I've always had Fridays off.

Al-Istiqamah: To pray jumuah prayer?

Mr Ahmed: Yes and it was never a problem. As soon as I was re-instated, they began scheduling me for Fridays. There weren't any extra jobs on, so they didn't need me to come in on a Friday. It was just their way of making things awkward for me. Also, many of us would opt to work on a weekend, as that paid time and a half. But once I was reinstated, they stopped us from weekend work and even during the week, we weren't being put on any jobs. When working on criminal investigations, you're under a lot of pressure. So it was hard to go from that kind of environment to suddenly be expected to sit there and do nothing all day long.

Al-Istiqamah: You complained?

Mr Ahmed: Raja and I began logging incidents and putting in complaints, but nothing was ever done. But when other staff put in a complaint, they'd immediately get a response. Our complaints were left for over 6 months without any response. Little things like if a white officer needed to take a day off to take his son for an appointment, they'd immediately grant him permission. No questions asked. When I put in a request to take a day off to take my wife to the hospital - she was pregnant at the time - I was told to provide proof that she was unwell.

Al-Istiqamah: So there were double standards when dealing with you?

Mr Ahmed: Absolutely. Eventually we took it to an employment tribunal. I'd never advise anyone to do that though, as you have no chance of winning - especially when you're employed by the Government. Then they tried to get rid of us by saying that the unit was closing down and I'd have to be transferred to Croydon, South London. Our office at London Bridge was only a 20 minute's drive from my home, and Croydon is much further, so I refused. We reached a compromise and I was transferred to Waterloo, which is only 10 minutes further than London Bridge.

Al-Istiqamah: Could you give us a few details as to what kind of work you did as a senior immigration officer there?

Mr Ahmed: I was an arrest-trained officer doing criminal investigation work. We were there to train the staff at Waterloo because you get a lot of people coming from France with false passports. The police don't want to deal with it, so they try and get the staff at Waterloo Station to arrest these people, get them charged and taken to court. Typically you'd be looking at 6 months for that sort of thing. And we were also there to do passport control work...

Al-Istiqamah: You worked quite closely with the police?

Mr Ahmed: Very closely. In fact as senior immigration officers we had the authority to arrest people, conduct searches etc just like police officers. We also had warrant cards.

Al-Istiqamah: And once again the Home Office tried to get you sacked?

Mr Ahmed: Yes. There was a man who'd come to the country on a false passport. We called the police, but they weren't available to arrest him. So I went down to arrest this man. That was part of my job. It was alleged that I'd done an illegal arrest.

Al-Istiqamah: Was this your first arrest?

Mr Ahmed: No, I've been doing hundreds of them for years. This time, they said that my job was to call the police and have them arrest this guy. I explained that I had contacted the police and as they weren't available and I'm trained and authorised to arrest such people, so I did so. At Waterloo, you have two areas: airside and landside. If you're airside, that's sovereign territory of... let's say France. So there were armed French police there too. I had two of my colleagues with me, but they weren't arrest-trained.

Next they brought up the point that it was a health and safety issue as I didn't have colleagues with me trained to arrest. I countered that I had about 8 armed French police officers with me. When that claim was refuted, they showed me CCTV footage of the arrest and accused me of not wearing body armour! I told them that I was wearing body armour under my jumper. They couldn't bring proof to dispute that and finally they dropped the matter. When they realized that they were not going to win, they dropped the matter. But things were getting more hostile at work.

Al-Istiqamah: Could you describe the atmosphere?

Mr Ahmed: Once when one of the mangers was leaving, there was a card going around the office for everyone to sign. This was around the time that Raja and I had put in a few complaints about the discrimination that we were facing. One of the CIOs (Chief Immigration Officers) had written this: "You should have stayed to watch those b------s beaten." You could see it meant ?bastards'. I knew it referred to me and Raja.

Al-Istiqamah: What makes you say that?

Mr Ahmed: When I was walking past, one of the immigration officers quickly tried to hide the card. I grabbed it and said "Oh, whose card is this then?" The officer tried to grab it back and prevent me from reading it. That's when I got suspicious and read the card. I took a photocopy of it and we submitted it as evidence at the tribunal. The Judge said that I had no evidence that it was directed at us and he didn't feel it was a derogatory comment. The judge said it could have said ?buggers', even though the number of dashes clearly pointed to it saying ?bastards'.

Al-Istiqamah: The judge sided with the Home Office?

Mr Ahmed: On every point. We had over 200 incidents, and we lost on every single one. If you read the BBC article about the case (Race Bias Case Officer ?a Liar'), the picture they painted of me was of a racist who couldn't say a sentence without using the f-word.

Al-Istiqamah: Did that affect your relationships at work?

Mr Ahmed: It did, because I had a lot of black colleagues who were supporting me, but after those lies were printed, they stopped talking to me.

Al-Istiqamah: The tribunal didn't accept your evidence?

Mr Ahmed: No, not even on a single point. Any request that the Home Office submitted, it was granted. Any request by our legal team was refused. We requested a lot of documents from the Human Resources department, but our barrister was not given them. We submitted a heck of a lot of evidence and even got a report by an independent officer who did a review and acknowledged that the place was racist. He had reported the racism, homophobia and sexism posters on the walls of Beckett House at London Bridge. They tried to say that he wasn't qualified to make such a report!

Al-Istiqamah: Did they admit concede that racist language had been used in your presence?

Mr Ahmed: That's the funniest part. Seeing as some of the colleagues had made statements that racist comments were made in the office but they ?couldn't remember' who had made them, there was a record of that. So for damage limitation the Home Office counter-claimed that racist language was used, but only ever by me and Raja! Another thing they accused us of was...this will make you laugh. They claimed that me and Raja were out on a job one day and we stood up and urinated on the walls of a Jewish Synagogue! Now, all our jobs have to be audited. You have to contact the local police and inform them that you're on their patch, as sometimes they might be doing an operation at the same time. The job is logged on 2 separate computer systems. We also have to inform our Intelligence Unit.

Al-Istiqamah: Did they provide false details of a date and time?

Mr Ahmed: No date, no time, not even a proper location, just "somewhere in north London"! But even with that fabrication, I pointed out that we don't stand when we urinate and had we done so we would have soiled our clothes and been unable to do our prayers. Besides, we wouldn't treat a place of worship with disrespect. Islam teaches us not to be racist. We wrote to the Home Secretary about it and they never responded.

Al-Istiqamah: Who did they claim witnessed the act?

Mr Ahmed: A Jewish immigration officer. I knew him, as we had worked together. I'd even helped him out a few times, but he appeared on their side as a witness.

Al-Istiqamah: Did you have witnesses on your side to back up your claims?

Mr Ahmed: We had colleagues who agreed with us, but we couldn't get these officers to testify on our side. Understandably, none of them wanted to risk losing their jobs for contradicting their seniors.

Al-Istiqamah: How difficult was it to bring a case to court against the Home Office for racial discrimination?

Mr Ahmed: See, with us, you're up against senior managers who all back each other up.

Al-Istiqamah: The Home Office responded quite aggressively to the claim that they are an inherently racist organisation, didn't they?

Mr Ahmed: They did. Our case against the Home Office was similar to the Steven Laurence case for the Met. They couldn't afford to lose it. I'll give you an example of how worried they were. Fiona Mactaggart (currently an MP for Slough ) was a Minister at the Home Office. She dealt with race equality, community policy and civil renewal between 2003-2005. On the day that our court case began, she was due to give a talk at Croydon on cohesion. They cancelled the talk and there was a ministerial briefing which I saw that stated that the talk was cancelled to prevent her being questioned about our case.

Al-Istiqamah: Do you think the Home Office thought that they had a good chance of winning?

Mr Ahmed: No, quite the opposite. They were advised that they had an 80% chance of losing. It makes you wonder how they won on every single point. They smashed us to pieces and are claiming that we owe them ?360,000 in costs.

Al-Istiqamah: Did you feel that you were fighting a losing battle?

Mr Ahmed: That's how I'd describe it. The court was corrupt, the witnesses were corrupt, even our own Barrister Catherine Rayner - a specialist employment lawyer - would refuse to put many of our points across. We'd have valid points and she would fob us off. Their barrister would hammer his point home and hurl ridiculous accusations at us. We needed someone who could deal with that style. She would just sit there doing nothing. When we urged her to respond, she would simply say "that's not my style. I'll do it in submissions". She never did.

Al-Istiqamah: Could you give an example?

Mr Ahmed: One of the managers testified that his stepson was Algerian and that he was raising him as a Muslim child, so how could he be racist against us.

Al-Istiqamah: What was your response?

Mr Ahmed: We told our barrister to ask him to define 'Muslim'. Was he feeding the child halal meat? Had he ensured that the child was receiving religious instruction? She refused. She kept reiterating that she had been instructed by the Union. Yet the Union denied this. In fact even our legal consultations were tapped.

Al-Istiqamah: What makes you say that?

Mr Ahmed: Raja and I had a conversation in front of our barrister, yet somehow the other side knew about it.

Al-Istiqamah: Where was this?

Mr Ahmed: In one of the consultation rooms outside of the court room.

Al-Istiqamah: You think pressure was put on her?

Mr Ahmed: I do. We never picked her. She was appointed for us.

Al-Istiqamah: Who were the people testifying against you?

Mr Ahmed: They were senior managers. There were about 17 testifying against us.

Al-Istiqamah: You lost the tribunal. Did you resign?

Mr Ahmed: Some of my colleagues suggested that I did, to ensure that I didn't lose out on my pension, if I was to be sacked. I refused to resign as that implies guilt. Anyway, rizq (provision) is from Allah. In the end they sacked me.

Al-Istiqamah: On what grounds?

Mr Ahmed: Gross misconduct.

Al-Istiqamah: What happened?

Mr Ahmed: I had a colleague who decided she would take 2 hours off to go to the gym. Problem was, she didn't sign off, so she was being paid to work, even though she was on a break. As her line manager I pulled her up and cautioned her not to do it again. I said to her "Look, I'm going to turn a blind eye to it this once. If you need time off, sign off, but don't take the piss and go to the gym. I'll turn a blind eye to it just this once." Behind my back, the senior managers had got together with her and concocted a story that I had behaved in an inappropriate manner with her and put that on file. Eventually she withdrew this allegation, but I was gob-smacked that they would stoop to such a level. We were considered to be whistle-blowers.

Al-Istiqamah: When did you first notice resentment at yourself being a Muslim in a position of authority?

Mr Ahmed: As early as 2002, when many Muslims were being detained at Paddington Green station (a high secure station), the police officers would be funny with me and Raja. I'd started to be more religious and I had a big beard. You could see by their facial expressions and tone that they were hostile. In fact, I'll tell you about an incident that happened in 2003. I once went down to Paddington Green Station with two other colleagues. One was Asian and one was white, but he looked Asian. There was a female police officer at the door. My Asian colleague pulled out his warrant card and explained that we're from Immigration to see so-and-so. The officer demanded to see my ID and that of the white colleague. We all complied. Then she said to us "You're not immigration officers."

Al-Istiqamah: After seeing your ID?

Mr Ahmed: Yeah. So I told my colleague to take a note of all of this and she finally says "You don't look like immigration officers". I asked her what exactly does an immigration officer look like! Eventually a sergeant was called and they tried to claim that we were the ones instigating trouble! They clearly didn't like the idea of religious-looking Muslim officers coming to Paddington Green with Home Office clearance. There were 6 of us Muslims with clearance to work with the anti-terrorism squad.

Al-Istiqamah: Was Paddington Green the only place where you experienced discrimination?

Mr Ahmed: No. I once went on a holiday with Raja and my brother, who is a customs officer. We were going to Morocco by car. We had to catch the last ferry that day from Dover which would take us to Dunkirk. All of our hotel bookings for the next two weeks had been done. On the way I see a special branch bloke staring at me. I told the other two "We're getting pulled [over]".

Al-Istiqamah: So this was whilst leaving the country?

Mr Ahmed: Exactly! We're not trying to enter the UK. He pulls us up and I ask him why he's stopped us. He said it was for anti-terrorism. I thought they'd be reasonable, and I wasn't expecting to miss our ferry which was due to leave in 45 minutes. When he persisted in questioning us, I pulled out my warrant card and said "Look, this is who I am. I work at Scotland Yard. I'm attached to Paddington Green police station. I work with the anti-terrorism squad. I'm anti-terrorist cleared." In order to get clearance to do this sort of work you have to have clearance from the secretary of State i.e. the Home Secretary.

Al-Istiqamah: What did he say?

Mr Ahmed: Basically, the Special Branch bloke said he didn't care. They split us up, searched us, and emptied out all of our stuff. Then they questioned us about which mosque we attend etc. We told them that they'd only stopped us because they'd seen us Asian bearded men and they were racist.

Al-Istiqamah: Do you have to answer their questions?

Mr Ahmed: You don't have to, but it's not really going to help you if you refuse. When they do a stop-and-search like that, under section 44, you don't even have to give your name. Also, they have to give you a slip when they stop and search you.

Al-Istiqamah: What's that for?

Mr Ahmed: It has to give the reason why you were stopped. You don't have to give your name, but it can cause problems if you don't. Reason being, that then they think you have something to hide. With us we complied, as we had a ferry to catch.

Al-Istiqamah: How long were you held for?

Mr Ahmed: We were held for about 6 hours. Then they asked why I had an army Bergen (backpack). I told them I had been in the Royal Marines. (That was before I was religious.) "What were you doing there?" they asked. I said "What do people usually do in the Royal Marines!" My brother and I had both been in the TA (Territorial Army). "Where are you going?" "We're going to France, Spain and then Morocco". "Why Morocco? What are you going to do there?" That's how it went. They called Customs. They brought all this hi-tech machinery. They took the doors off my car, brought their sniffer dogs. I told them "We're going out of the country. We're not entering. So why are you doing this?" They went over-the-top.

Al-Istiqamah: And when they let you go...

Mr Ahmed: They let us go. We missed our ferry and had to get one the next day, so we lost all our hotel bookings. But we finally arrived in Morocco.

Al-Istiqamah: You didn't have any hassle in France, Spain or Morocco?

Mr Ahmed: No trouble in France or Spain, but in Morocco, they thought we were British spies. This was in 2003, a few days before the Iraq War started. A car was following us. We went to the McDonalds in Marokesh and I see the same bloke on several occasions trying to look inconspicuous. I said to him "Are you following me?" He spoke English and denied it. I told him "Look, you need some better training!" He was from their Secret Services. Next thing I know, we're surrounded by armed police and force to lie on the ground with guns pointing at our heads.

Al-Istiqamah: Why did they detain you?

Mr Ahmed: They thought we were British spies. The deputy chief of police came. He asked if we are Muslims. We told him that we are. He looked at my passport and saw my umrah visa. He said "Ah, so you're a Hajji! [one who has performed the Hajj pilgrimage]" I said "I'm not a Hajji; I went for Umrah (the lesser pilgrimage)" The guy then asked us to say our kalimah (declaration of faith). We did so and they said we were free to go.

Al-Istiqamah: What was your reaction?

Mr Ahmed: I asked him why they'd had us followed and he said because they thought we were British spies! I said, "but now you don't think we are?" It was comical. He said "No, now we know you're Muslims, as you've said your shahadah."

Al-Istiqamah: Subhanallah!

Mr Ahmed: They were all right with us in the end. They shook our hands and apologised. They even let us park our car in the police station car park for free and provided an armed guard next to it. I feel they treated us better than our own people when we were questioned leaving and re-entering the UK.

Al-Istiqamah: You had problems re-entering the UK?

Mr Ahmed: Yes. On the way back, we got hassled again. We'd already told them on the way out exactly who were were. So there we were, 2 immigrations officers and a customs officer, all trained to do anti-terrorism work... We're ex-army, we were civil servants at the time, we knew the law and we had the funds to sort any potential problems out. So if we can get treated like that, what about other Muslims?

We'd had a bad trip and were tired, cold and hungry. We were stopped by an immigration officer. Now because we're British passport holders, she doesn't have the right to stop us. We queried why we were being stopped and the officer said that she didn't have to answer our questions.

Al-Istiqamah: You didn't tell her you were an immigration officer yourself?

Mr Ahmed: No, I waited to see what she would say. I pointed to the Citizen's Charter on the wall next to her and said "According to that Charter, you do have to tell us. So tell me under what legislation you're stopping us under." She still refused to explain, and chose to call the Special Branch. We complained and made it clear that we knew we'd only been stopped due to their racist attitude.

Al-Istiqamah: Did they check your details?

Mr Ahmed: They did, and Special Branch informed the Immigration officers that we were also immigration officers. In the end they had to release us.

Al-Istiqamah: How long did they hold you for?

Mr Ahmed: Two hours. They questioned us, but we refused to answer a question.

Al-Istiqamah: Working in anti-terrorism, did you ever feel that there was a conflict of interests between your duties as an immigration officer and as a devout Muslim?

Mr Ahmed: Yes. When they detained all those Algerians as so-called terrorists, they did it under immigration legislation. Reason being that our detention powers are a lot stronger. You can hold them indefinitely, as long as it is regularly reviewed. I was on those teams, but I never arrested or detained any of the Algerians. I was in a dilemma as to what to do. But in the end, I decided that it was better for me to be in the team when these Algerians were being arrested, rather than them getting another officer who might very well mistreat them.

Al-Istiqamah: Why do you think that the Home Office were so determined to get rid of you?

Mr Ahmed: It's funny that you should ask that. Coincidentally, I met a colleague of mine a few days ago. I haven't seen him for 10 years. We discussed my case and he said that due to the fact that I was in a very sensitive area with a position of power, the Home Office didn't like. My clearance and access to so much airport data might have made the Home Office concerned that I was in a position to help so-called terrorists. Perhaps at one time - before I became a practicing Muslim - with the background that I had (TA, Royal Marines etc), I could have been seen as ideal candidate to work for them.

Al-Istiqamah: Mr Ahmed, jazakullah khayran (may Allah reward you) for speaking to us about your experience.

Source: Al-Istiqamah.com