Immigration staff are under investigation over allegations they mocked asylum seekers with racist songs and forced former child soldiers to re-enact shootings.
The UK Border Agency staff have been accused of singing an insulting version of the ‘Um Bongo’ song from the 1980s soft drink advert, and giving a cuddly toy named “grant monkey” to colleagues who approved asylum applications.
The claims were made by the former Border Agency worker Louise Perrett, the Metro has reported.
The chief executive of the immigration office, Lin Homer, has confirmed an independent body is now investigating the claims.
Perrett told a Commons select committee that younger staff at the Cardiff office were “gung-ho and rude” and showed “general hostility” to asylum seekers.
She added one member of staff sang “Um Bongo, Um Bongo, they kill them in the Congo” after being told an applicant came from the Congo.
She also said of another worker: “When we had young men or children claiming to be former child soldiers, he would make them lie on the floor and demonstrate how they would shoot someone. If they didn’t do it immediately or there was some hesitation, they would be refused.”
Perrett worked at the Cardiff office for three-and-a-half months last summer.
