HavenCo, the ‘data haven’ based on the tiny fortress island Sealand six miles off the coast of Essex, says it will host its first website next week, despite claims from the UK Home Office that it has no legitimacy.A HavenCo engineer arriving from the United States last Friday was turned away because he did not have a UK work permit. Having been stopped and questioned by immigration officers at the airport, he said that he had assumed he wouldn’t need one because he was going to work on Sealand, which has made claims to be independent of the UK since it was first taken over in the 1960s. The Home Office appear to disagree. ‘We consider Sealand to be part of the UK,’ a government spokesperson said, ‘and therefore anyone working there who is not a citizen of a European Union country would require a work permit.‘HavenCo said the action was ‘ridiculous’ and said that the company would begin to ferry its staff from other countries bordering the North Sea. ‘If Britain starts playing games,’ they spluttered, ‘we’ll find other ways of getting people to Sealand.‘The company insist their schedule has not been affected by the setback, and that their new engineer will begin work immediately. They have not, however, deigned to mention whether he will be working under a UK work permit (meaning that the fortresses’ status as a data haven would be called seriously into question), or how he is to get to Sealand. Background on HavenCo: www.ninfomania.com/article.asp?id=1587&ch=newzThe short history of Sealand: www.sealandgov.com/history.html