UK Border Agency report comes under fire

Thousands of asylum seeker applications are thought to have been unresolved

17:15 22 November 2012

The Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration has related to the concept of many asylum seekers not being found, despite promised efforts supposedly being put to Parliament. A new report has also stated that a backlog of over 10,000 letters had remained unopened regarding immigration issues.

 

It is understood that 150 boxes of post rest in an office, with the Chief Inspector John Vine saying the UK Border Agency (UKBA) was swamped. This relates to some 147,000 applications from asylum seekers being unresolved.

 

As a result, it seems that some people were able to stay in the UK as their application process had not been finalised.

 

Reportedly, security checks were apparently not being completed with regards to cases of asylum seekers. The reason for this is understood to relate to the fact that the UKBA could not track individuals down, and so their cases had to be filed.

 

Mr Vine commented on this saying that it was “unacceptable” and that a select committee were notified that “exhaustive checks” were carried out prior to archiving asylum seeker cases.

 

Keith Vaz, the chairman of the home affairs said: “This is a devastating report into the way in which the UKBA administrates the immigration system.”

 

A Home Office spokesman has said: “The UKBA has now reviewed the cases within the controlled archive and undertaken a robust process to trace those we can find evidence are still in the UK and, where appropriate, remove them.”

 

He said: “We have known for some time that UKBA is a troubled organisation with a poor record of delivery. Turning the agency around will take time but we are making progress.”