Pretty? Give her a Visa. Ugly? Send her Back

The Sun featured a big story about a brewing scandal at Lunar House, where immigrant status is greatly affected by looks.

“A Lebanese girl came into the office in a foul temper asking for one of the guys who worked there. He had recently moved to another department. “She told us that he’d promised to give her an extension to a visa and that they had slept together at her flat in Brighton.” He went on:

Brazilian girls were treated best of all. If male and female Brazilian migrants came in to extend their visas, the guy would get one year and the girl two — even if both had the same level of paperwork. The girl would only have to smile, bend over the desk and she’d get longer. Officers used to say about ugly girls: “She’s bloody disgusting — let’s send her back anyway.”

If an immigrant was ugly, several officers would leave their desks to go behind a screen and laugh at her passport picture. The photo would be copied and pinned up on a wall

Anthony told how pretty girls would be seen within minutes while other migrants faced queuing for hours. And he said security checks were so lax terrorists could have sneaked into the country.