'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.
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