8 in Afghan Hijacking Win Asylum; 32 Are Denied

Eight Afghan citizens who arrived in Britain on a hijacked jet will be allowed to remain, but asylum appeals on behalf of 32 others have been rejected, the government said Wednesday.

Home Secretary Jack Straw said decisions involving 37 other people had been postponed. Criminal charges are pending against 14 others who were aboard the flight.

The Ariana Airlines Boeing 727 was hijacked Feb. 6 during a flight from the Afghan capital, Kabul, to the northern town of Mazar-i-Sharif and forced to fly to Stansted Airport, northeast of London. The hijackers surrendered four days later, and many of the hijack victims asked to stay in Britain.

Straw said he had approved applications for asylum from two individuals, who will stay in Britain with a total of six dependents.

“In both cases, as it happens, the applicant’s case for asylum arose before they had boarded the flight, and it was a matter of chance for them that it was hijacked,” Straw said in a written statement to the House of Commons.

Seventy-three people from the plane have returned voluntarily to Afghanistan, two others have asked to do so, and the four-man flight crew will take the aircraft back to Kabul once it is cleared to fly, the Home Office said.

Straw said he was not convinced by 32 of the applications that there was a well-founded fear of persecution back in war-ravaged Afghanistan, most of which is ruled by the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban movement.

He postponed decisions on 37 applications, either because they could prejudice the trials of the hijackers or because he wanted more information.

He said that, because of renewed fighting in Afghanistan, the government would not send the hijack victims home immediately.