'This situation causes anxiety, uncertainty and frustration'
Sixteen thousand migrants are currently waiting to hear whether they can remain in the UK, according to an independent investigation into UK border controls.
This situation causes anxiety, uncertainty and frustration for those individuals and their family members.
Delays in deciding applications also mean that enforcement action is likely to be more difficult in the event that the case is ultimately refused.
This is because the individual will have been in the UK for a number of years and may have developed a family or private life.
– John Vine, Independent Chief Inspector for Borders and Immigration
Immigration inspectors find backlog of 16,000 migrants
An investigation into UK border controls has revealed that more than 16,000 immigrants are waiting to hear whether they can stay in Britain.
The number of applicants is growing at a rate of 700 a month, with around 14,000 already refused the right to stay.
Some people have been waiting 'considerable periods of time' for cases to be resolved Credit: Steve Parsons/PA Wire
Independent Chief Inspector for Borders and Immigration John Vine discovered the backlogs as part of an inquiry into applications to remain in Britain on the basis of marriage.
Mr Vine said: "We are concerned that this backlog of cases has been allowed to develop. As a result, some applicants have been waiting for considerable periods of time for their cases to be resolved."
Thirty-one stowaways found in lorries at Port of Calais
UK Border Control search a lorry trailer for stowaway passengers at Calais Ferry Port in France. Picture date: Monday June 6, 2011. Credit: PA
Thirty-one stowaways had their hopes of entering the UK shattered after border officials found them hidden inside four UK-bound lorries at the Port of Calais.
A sniffer dog indicated there were people inside a Peterborough-bound Turkish-registered lorry and 12 Albanians were found among the cargo.
Officers using heartbeat monitors also discovered six Afghans hidden in a Polish-registered vehicle which was heading to Accrington, Lancashire, with its load of sofas.
A detector dog also led officers to find six Albanians hidden among nappies on a Czech-registered lorry bound for Lincolnshire.
The fourth discovery was in an Irish-registered lorry heading to the Republic of Ireland. A dog led officers to find seven people on board - three from Iran, two from Pakistan, one from Afghanistan and a Syrian.
All the stowaways were handed over to French border police.
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. The Border Force is now an independent organisation and its performance is improving.
And UKBA has a transformation plan that will put the agency on a surer footing.
A new performance and compliance unit has been created to provide assurance that information and data that is routinely published by the agency is robust and reliable.
The Home Secretary will invite John Vine as part of his future inspection plan to inspect the audit and assurance mechanisms of the agency.
Chief inspector issues damning report on UK Border Agency
Chief inspector of the UK Border Agency John Vine was asked to evaluate how well UKBA had handled the backlog of thousands of unresolved immigration cases.
Chief inspector of the UK Border Agency John Vine Credit: Stefan Rousseau/PA Archive
Mr Vine said he believed little had been done to try to resolve the cases before they were passed over.
He said: "Through the inefficiency and delay of the agency, those who would otherwise have faced removal will have accrued rights to remain in the UK."
Mr Vine also criticised "poor" customer service, and said that a lack of resources meant that deadlines were often missed, even when legal action was threatened.
The report said: "The issue of limited resources also created a significant impediment to case clearance.
"As a result, timescales given to applicants or their representatives about the resolution of cases were frequently missed, even where litigation was being threatened."
'100,000 letters left unopened' by UK Border Agency
UK Border Agency (UKBA) staff dealt with a backlog of immigration cases so inefficiently that at one point 100,000 pieces of post were unopened.
In March 2011, there were 147,000 unfinished cases that were passed to an audit unit tasked with dealing with the backlog.
More than 150 boxes of post, including letters from applicants, MPs and lawyers, lay unopened.
In a sample of 135 files examined as part of the inspection, each case had lain dormant for an average of 87 months before they were reopened in 2010 for consideration.
The shortest period of inactivity was six months and the longest period of inactivity was 17 years and nine months.
A total of 115 cases were found to have entered the UK illegally, and there were only 10 cases where active efforts had been made to trace absconders.
Immigration chiefs accused of misleading Parliament
An examination of controlled archive cases showed that the security checks - which the agency stated were being done on these cases - had not been undertaken routinely or consistently since April 2011.
I also found that no thorough comparison of data from controlled archive cases was undertaken with other Government departments or financial institutions in order to trace applicants until April 2012.
This was unacceptable and at odds with the assurances given to the Home Affairs Select Committee that 124,000 cases were only archived after 'exhaustive checks' to trace the applicant had been made.
– Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration John Vine
