It seems that not a week goes by without a new scandal exposing the dysfunction of the UK’s migration system.

The latest case to come to light is that of Brwa Shorsh. The 24-year-old Kurdish migrant pushed 61-year-old Tadeusz Potoczek into the path of an oncoming Tube train at Oxford Circus station earlier this year. Apparently, it was an act of ‘revenge’ for receiving what Shorsh interpreted as a ‘dirty look’. Thankfully, Potoczek was pulled up to safety by an alert member of the public and was unharmed.

Shorsh was convicted of attempted murder last week and will be sentenced in September. During the course of his trial, it emerged that he is a convicted criminal with a long list of past offences. A previous immigration-tribunal hearing was told that he had shown a ‘pattern of regular serious offending’. In fact, he held a dozen convictions for a total of 21 offences, including assaults, anti-social behaviour and outraging public decency. At the time of the attack at Oxford Circus station, Shorsh was appealing against his planned deportation.

With this deeply troubling record of repeated criminality, how on Earth was Shorsh still in the UK? This grave institutional and legal failure very nearly lead to a member of the public being killed or at least seriously injured.