02.06.11
Amnesty for asylum seekers?
MPs have published a report today criticising the UK Border Agency (UKBA) for failing to effectively control immigration.
Whilst attempting to clear a large backlog of cases and to deal with a target of 450,000 cases by this summer, 40% of asylum seekers have been given leave to remain in the UK. The Commons Home Affairs Select Committee suggests this is effectively ‘back-door amnesty’.
Immigration Minister Damian Green denied there was any amnesty for asylum seekers, saying: "What we've done is get through to the bottom of that huge problem we inherited.
"The main thing is we've now eliminated this backlog from the system so we can now get on with the everyday job that the previous government couldn't because they had that backlog."
Another 74,500 cases have been closed as the applicant cannot be found and 129,000 have been officially classified as ‘errors’. Only 9% of cases have been removed from Britain, with some cases dating back nearly 20 years.
Keith Best, former chief executive of the Immigration Advisory Service, warns that many of these immigrants have been here so long that they have established their lives and families, stating: "It is not their fault that they have been left in this kind of limbo by the Border Agency."
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