With the ignition off you can turn on the parking lights on either side of the car using the turn signal stalk in right or left turn positions!

It evidently is a German/European feature that Mini puts on cars that are exported to USA. VW does not include this on export cars.

How I found out:

While at work early yesterday, I was told that my parking lights were on out in the parking lot. I had been parked for about an hour. Sure enough, as I approached the car I could see the front and rear parking lights were on. I always leave headlight switch in automatic position, so I assumed that I twisted it to the on position by accident. I tried all the headlight switch positions and the parking lights would not go off.

Lucky for me, someone was walking by, sensed my frustration, and said that my turn signal was on. What????????? He knew this from traveling in Germany. I centered the turn signal and the lights went off.

I didn't walk around the car, so I didn't notice that the lights were only on on the drivers side. I was frustrated and ready to pull the battery cable as I really could not spend the time to trouble shoot this.

 

It's in your Owners Manual (MINI calls it "standing lamps"). The idea is that if you park on the side of a dark road, you can leave the lights on for safety. It's a feature common on European cars, not so much in the US.

 

+1 , Its for cars that park on the street in Europe , so you can see them at night to the side they are parked. And will not get bumped hopefully.