The problem was thrown into sharp relief recently by a Special Immigration Appeals Commission ruling on one Abid Naseer, a foreign national found to be an al-Qaeda operative who had been plotting terrorist action in our Kingdom.
"We are satisfied that Naseer was an al-Qaeda operative who posed and still poses a serious threat to the national security of the United Kingdom," the judgement said, adding that: "Subject to the issue of safety on return, it is conducive to the public good that he should be deported."
The Commission ultimately did not decide to deport Naseer, however, on the grounds that in Pakistan, a Commonwealth member and ally in the so-called "War on Terror", there "[I]s a long and well-documented history of disappearances, illegal detention and of the torture and ill-treatment of those detained, usually to produce information, a confession or compliance,".
We now have what has been long susepcted it in black and white now, at least: the safety of the foreign terrorist intending harm to the British people takes priority over the safety of the British citizen. This is a wholly unacceptable state of affairs.