by Craig Borland

TWO men who came to the UK seeking asylum breached immigration rules by continuing to work at a Clydebank restaurant after their applications to remain in the country were rejected.

Iraqi national Belan Ahmed and Rami Khelifi, who is originally from Tunisia, were working at the Roma Restaurant in Sylvania Way South when immigration officials and police visited the premises in April.

The pair were told to carry out unpaid community work as a punishment for the offence after both their lawyers said they were able and willing to work.

But one of the men’s solicitors said he had been “astonished” to discover from a social work report that his client was regarded as a “flight risk” and was not suitable for unpaid work – particularly on discovering that a separate report had recommended that Khelifi was suitable for the same punishment.

Kenny Clark said 22-year-old Ahmed was still waiting to hear from the Home Office on the result of his application for leave to remain in the UK.

“I cannot get my head around the suggestion from the social work report that Mr Ahmed represents a ‘flight risk’,” Mr Clark told Sheriff Simon Pender.

“Quite the opposite. He wants to stay in this country.

“I cannot understand how someone who is not allowed to work and be paid is then not allowed to do unpaid work and is not allowed to claim benefits.

“The cherry on top of the icing on top of the cake is the idea that he is not entitled to do unpaid hours of work as an alternative penalty.”

Sheriff Pender agreed that it “seems quite strange” that one of the men was assessed as suitable for unpaid work, while the other was not.

Fiscal depute Sarah Healing told Dumbarton Sheriff Court on December 1 that both Ahmed and Khelifi had entered the UK in the early summer of 2010, when they were both under 16, and had claimed asylum.

But she said both their applications for asylum, and subsequently for leave to remain, had been refused.

Both men appealed unsuccessfully against those rulings, and “all avenues were exhausted” by May 2012 in the case of Khelifi and May 2015 for Ahmed.

Ms Healing said: “On April 1, 2016, acting on intelligence received, immigration officers and Police Scotland officers attended the Roma Restaurant in Sylvania Way South.

“During their inspection both accused were seen in staff-only areas. In interviews both admitted they were working within the property when they were not permitted to do so.”

Mr Clark said Ahmed, of Priesthill Crescent in Glasgow, had made “no attempt to indulge in any secrecy or to hide what he was doing”.

“He knew he should no longer be working,” Mr Clark added, “but he carried on because he felt he had no choice but to work to support himself and his partner and child.

“I dare say this conviction will have a bearing upon the Home Office’s assessment of his pending application, and Mr Ahmed understands that too.”

Brian McGuire, representing 23-year-old Khelifi, of Cunard Court in Clydebank, said his client had been working “quite openly” at the restaurant, paying tax and national insurance.

“Everything he was required to do, he did,” Mr McGuire said.

“His motivation is simply to secure a better life.”

Sheriff Pender told Ahmed to carry out 70 hours of unpaid work, and Khelifi to do 75 hours.

Both sentences were reduced from 80 hours due to their pleas of guilty at different stages of the legal process. The pair were told to complete the work within four months.