An Iraqi goatherd in prison is a parable about Britain’s broken asylum system

An Iraqi goatherd in prison is a parable about Britain’s broken asylum system

Another refugee, Lukman Jargis, 21, who was convicted at an earlier hearing, was reportedly sent to Aberystwyth after falling in with members of the county’s network gang in Birmingham’s large Iraqi-Kurdish community.

He left Iraq as a child, spent time in a UNICEF camp in Greece, and eventually ended up in a detention camp in Calais before crossing the Channel.

Now he is serving a sentence of four years and three months.

Judge Walters said it was “significant” that only one of the three identified masterminds of the operation, Toana Ahmad, 33, from the West Midlands, had been caught.

It is assumed that the rest fled to Iraq.

Ahmad, who was granted indefinite leave after arriving in the UK in 2005, is currently serving a 12-year sentence.

And what about the people of Aberystwyth?

Faye Yeomans, 54, runs a cake boutique in the small Market Hall shopping arcade near the town hall.

“It’s very open now,” he said. “You see people gathering and waiting, then someone comes on a bike and a few minutes later they’re all gone.”

“I’ve been in this store for the last 10 years, and it’s gotten a lot worse in the last two or three years.”

“Drug trade all the time”

Meanwhile, as Dell Edwards smokes from his kitchen window in his first-floor apartment, he watches drug deals at any time of the day.

A 55-year-old woman quickly swipes her open palms together, indicating quick deals between dealers and buyers.

“I see four or five deals every night,” he said. “I’m afraid I’m not sure about living here.”

Residents of nearby Poplar Road, a known hot spot, were afraid to give their names to The Telegraph but described how the gang’s tactics changed after police raided the property they used to trade.

“A man with a long gray beard appears in the corner with a bag, handing out towels to other dealers who are going up and down on push bikes,” said one.

“Sometimes they would throw trash in the bushes in the parking lot.

“It was very fruitful here, especially in the evening. I once saw a well-known local businesswoman walk into a car park holding two £20 notes. He was angry when he saw me.”

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