Whistleblower Darren Jennings felt treated like a 'racist' for having concerns about the trips. (Image: Rowan Griffiths / Daily Mirror)

"If you're saying you've left the country because it's unsafe and then you're choosing to travel back there it doesn't make sense"

By Oscar Fisher

Nottingham Post

Whistleblowers from asylum accommodation have alleged that three teenage Iranian asylum seekers returned to their home country for a holiday - despite claiming they had fled due to persecution. According to two housing workers, these three Kurdish-Iranian asylum seekers returned to their country of origin on separate occasions, with their trips funded by another migrant.

Following a series of trips last year by teenagers from accommodation in Derbyshire, the two former employees of housing provider Framework claimed their concerns about the young men, all of whom had arrived in Britain via small boat, were "brushed aside." Housing officer Darren Jennings, 50, alleges he was "made to feel like a racist" after deciding to blow the whistle on the holidays, which involved watersports and Eid celebrations.

"If you're saying you've left the country because it's unsafe and then you're choosing to travel back there it doesn't make sense," he told the Express. "The countries they said they were going to have a history of terrorism, people smuggling and drug [trafficking]."

During his monthly check-ups at an asylum seeker accommodation facility, Mr Jennings became concerned when one resident failed to answer his door. He claims the man had returned to Iran to visit his family in April last year for around two months. This, according to Mr Jennings, prompted another Iranian resident to inform him of his plans to return as well.

The housing officer, who stepped down from his role at Framework in July last year, said he had also been told the trips were funded by another asylum seeker in Britain, whose identity remains unknown - saying this raised serious concerns over safeguarding. "These were people who were skint, on benefits but were saying 'we've got the money' from some mysterious individual willing to pay for it," he said.

"I have a daughter the same age and if she came to me and said 'somebody I barely know can pay for me to go to Ibiza for two months' I'm not letting her go. I'm certainly thinking there's something going on there." >>>