UK Border Agency condemned over immigration backlog
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, a report said today.
UKBA have been condemned for a backlog of immigration cases Credit: PA Wire
Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration John Vine found that security checks were not properly carried out on old cases and that workers had failed to check the records of other Government departments.
Applications were placed into an archive of unresolved cases after "very minimal work", despite the agency assuring MPs that "exhaustive" checks had been carried out, he concluded.
The number of outstanding immigration and asylum cases rose by 25,000 in three months and is "spiralling out of control", making the total caseload the equivalent of the population of Iceland, the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee Chairman Keith Vaz has said.
More than 300,000 cases needed to be dealt with at the end of June, up 9% over the previous three months, the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee revealed.
But clearing the backlog should not be a rushed job done without the proper checks, the committee's report on the UK Border Agency (UKBA) warned.
Ali was reportedly jailed for three years at Sheffield Crown Court and released in 2008, when the Home Office ordered that he return to Sudan and he was locked up in an immigration removal centre.
But he appealed to an immigration court and though a judge rejected his bid, he mounted a fresh appeal to the Upper Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber, the Mail on Sunday reported.
He was allowed to stay because deporting him, the court ruling showed, would be contrary to the United Kingdom's obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.
The UK Border Agency has reacted with fury to a court ruling allowing a Sudanese asylum seeker who raped a 12-year-old girl to remain in Britain.
Sani Adil Ali, 28, originally from Darfur and part of a threatened tribe, originally came to Britain in 2003 and was awarded refugee status in February 2005, it was reported.
But only a few months later he was arrested at his home in Middlesbrough and later admitted one count of raping the girl, who was Hungarian.
Prime Minister David Cameron has promised to take action on the legislation that helps foreign criminals stay in the UK.
Labour: Home Secretary 'lurching from shambles to shambles'
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the Home Secretary needed to "to get a grip" this evening. She said:
The UK Border Agency and Border Force are lurching from shambles to shambles. Yet ministers don't seem to have a clue what's going on. Instead of getting a grip, the Government just keeps making it worse."
The UK Border Agency says their IT systems are back up and running after an earlier failure.
We did have a IT outage today but our system is now back up and running. There will be a small backlog of appointments to clear. Anyone who needs a urgent appointment will get one
Over £750 million pounds has been wasted over e-borders and £9.1 million on unreliable iris scanners, according to Keith Vaz of the Home Affairs Select Committee.
This is yet another example of UKBA's failure to plan properly for a new scheme.
– Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee
He described the situation as 'a shambles'.
UKBA must ensure they have the technology in place to cope with new policy before it is introduced
– Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee
Immigration lawyer Andrew Tingley says that new rules requiring foreign nationals from outside the EU to have a biometric residents permit had left the IT system unable to cope.
It was close to collapse a few weeks ago. It has now collapsed. It's an absolute mess
