Harjit Singh has been in the UK for 19 years

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Harjit Singh, 48, who has been in the UK for 19 years, is unwilling to co-operate with a Home Office bid to arrange emergency travel documents to get him flown out. Officials are unable to resort to tougher measures and will have to turn to the Indian embassy for help, an immigration hearing was told. Singh, of no fixed address, claims to be a devout Sikh. He came to the attention of the authorities in 2016 only when he was arrested over the sex attacks. He was jailed in October 2016 at Kingston Crown Court for six years after he ambushed a 35-year-old vulnerable woman that July.

Rapist who LAUGHED at his terrified victim is jailed for six years

He followed her after she got on a bus in Hounslow, west London, then forced his way into her flat as she went inside.

Singh tried to rape her, but bizarrely fell asleep, and the woman alerted neighbours.

He admitted attempted rape and trespass with intent to commit a sexual act and was given a further six months after sexually assaulting two nurses at the Royal Free Hospital, north London, in 2015. But Singh, who requires a Punjabi interpreter, absconded while on licence from prison and was put into detention.

His delaying tactics emerged as he applied for bail while the deportation process continues.

A judge at the west London immigration hearing refused to grant Singh bail, saying: "This is a person who has in the past absconded. He is likely to continue to avoid and evade any immigration controls."