BRITAIN: The UK's home office yesterday opened an investigation into allegations that officials had operated a "sex for passports" scam at the Lunar House immigration centre in Croydon, south London.
The move follows claims in the Sun newspaper by a former administration officer at the centre that women were helped to stay in the UK in return for having sex with centre staff. He said that more attractive women got preferential treatment.
Anthony Pamnani (24) alleged he complained about the behaviour but had been ignored. He also claimed security checks on immigrants were often not carried out. He said he left the service "in disgust".
Tony McNulty, the home office minister, said yesterday: "I have every confidence that staff in the Immigration and Nationality Directorate carry out their roles with professionalism and integrity.
"These are serious allegations and I will ensure they are fully investigated . . . clearly I will not condone this type of behaviour amongst staff."
The Sun said Mr Pamnani left his job at Lunar House after four years because of staff behaviour.
He claimed that, often, passports were not checked to ensure immigrants had no previous convictions and that photos of women "too ugly to be allowed to stay" would be laughed at and put on the wall.