Anti-Nigerian bias

It seems that multiculturalism has produced some new and interesting forms of racism:

A chief immigration officer who accused his white colleagues of routinely referring to black and Asian people as “spear-chuckers”, “savages” and “niggers” is a liar who used derogatory language about Nigerians, a tribunal heard today.

Jamil Ahmed, who works at the Immigration and Nationality Directorate, Beckett House, London Bridge, “could hardly say a sentence without using the word f******” and his boss “couldn’t remember an occasion when he used the word Nigerians without using the word f******”, the Croydon Employment Tribunal was told.

Nick Moss, on behalf of the Home Office, which is contesting Mr Ahmed and colleague Raja Khan’s claims of racial discrimination, said: “You have at times been dishonest and you have lied.

“Far from being the victim of inappropriate language you were one of the worst, if not the worst, perpetrator of the use of such inappropriate language in the office. You repeatedly used language that was derogatory, in particular about Nigerians. Is that right?”

Mr Ahmed: “No.”

Mr Moss: “And about homosexuals?”

Mr Ahmed: “No, I don’t use bad language.”

The barrister told the hearing that Mr Ahmed’s boss, Mike Price, had said Mr Ahmed “could hardly say a sentence without using the word f******”.

“I couldn’t remember an occasion when he used the word Nigerians without using the word f******,” Mr Price said.

Mr Ahmed later conceded: “I may have used the term. I never directed it at anyone. (It was) under my breath.”

The 33-year-old, from Walthamstow, east London, who oversees the removal of failed asylum seekers, was alleged to have “taken particular pleasure at the prospect of arresting and returning Nigerian targets”, which he denied.

The south London tribunal heard Mr Ahmed was “never, in the office, the subject of direct derogatory comments about his race”.

Mr Moss said: “The words you say were used – ‘spear-chuckers’, ‘savages’ and ‘niggers’ – were words that are not usually used to talk about people of an Asian ethnic background but of an African Caribbean background. The word ‘Paki’ has not been used about you. The words, if they were used, were not directed at you.”

Mr Ahmed, who joined the Crime Investigation Section in June 2001, agreed with this but said he found the alleged use of some language “offensive”.

He claimed Mr Price used the word “savages” on a daily basis, particularly if a driver from an ethnic minority got in his way on the road.

Mr Moss read a statement from Mr Price in which he said: “I used the word ‘savage’ once about a white male who was eating in an appalling manner and I did so in the presence of a black officer.”