Another glaring sign that Britain’s asylum system is totally out of control, as 9 Afghan hijackers will be allowed to stay in the UK with their wives and children, receiving rent-free housing and benefits: Hijackers allowed to stay for fear of infringing their human rights.

Nine Afghan gunmen who hijacked an airliner four years ago and forced it to fly to London have been told they can stay in Britain with their wives and children. After a secret court hearing, immigration adjudicators refused them asylum but ruled that they could not be deported because their human rights would be infringed.

David Davis, the shadow home secretary, described the ruling as “crazy” last night on the grounds that it sent the wrong signals to others tempted to use hijackings to claim asylum. …

The hijackers seized a Boeing 727 on an internal flight from Kabul in February 2000. Armed with guns and explosives, they held the plane at Stansted Airport for 70 hours surrounded by police and SAS before giving themselves up.

They were jailed at the Old Bailey the following year for hijack, false imprisonment, possessing firearms with intent to cause fear of violence and possessing explosives. But their convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeal last summer. The judges ruled that the law relating to whether the men had acted under duress had been wrongly applied at their trial. Since then, the Government has been fighting to throw them out of the country.

The Home Office said last night it intended to appeal but it is now increasingly likely that the hijackers and their families will be allowed to stay indefinitely in Britain.

Of the 170 people on the plane, 89 returned voluntarily to Afghanistan and 22, including 13 dependants, have been granted asylum. A further 25 are awaiting the outcome of appeals and other legal procedures that have cost at least �20 million.

The remaining 34 are the hijackers, their wives and children, who have been resettled in rent-free housing in west London and receive benefits.