ANWAR RIZVI came to Britain from Pakistan as a teenager. As a first-generation immigrant he has been appalled by the bigotry and intolerance of those people who criticise asylum seekers.

However, after six years of sitting through asylum appeals as a court interpreter with the Department for Constitutional Affairs he has become alarmed by the way people are allowed to cheat the system.

Rizvi, 46, feels so strongly about it that he has decided to break the code of silence of the professionals who work in the courts. He knows that he may have to pay with his job.

In a statement to The Sunday Times he claims that too many asylum seekers are being given permission by the government to stay permanently in Britain, even though they have already been rejected.

Those who drag their cases through the appeal system the longest are the ones most likely to be given the special dispensation that is supposed to be granted in only exceptional cases.

This is despite the fact that their claims are often bogus. Rizvi accused the Home Office of using the policy to massage down the numbers of those being processed through the asylum courts.

Rizvi has acted in more than 300 asylum cases processed through the courts. His job inside the grandly named Immigration Appellate Authority has given him a unique insight into the heart of Britain’s asylum system.

An intelligent, educated and thoughtful man who speaks four languages, his experiences have led him to conclude that it is time to expose the shambles.

“The whole asylum and immigration process in this country is being abused and held up to ridicule,” he said.

With immigration set to be a key issue at the next election, Rizvi’s testimony this weekend will cast fresh light on a hidden area of government policy.

Once again David Blunkett, the home secretary, will have to fend off accusations that he is hiding the truth about the government’s “managed migration” policies.

Rizvi’s disclosures are similar to those of Steve Moxon, an immigration official whose revelations about the rubber-stamping of migrants’ work permits led eventually to the resignation of Beverley Hughes, the immigration minister.

Rizvi’s claims centre on the workings of the labyrinthine asylum appeals system, which is currently hearing about 22,000 cases from failed asylum seekers.

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