Post by Focus on Jul 13, 2013 7:17:38 GMT
* MPs conclude the backlog now tops more than 500,000 cases
* At current rates of progress it will take 37 years to deal with
* Since a report three months ago the backlog has increased by 190,000
* Report prompted calls for an end to spending cuts to the immigration system to ensure
further backlogs do not develop
It will take nearly four decades to clear up the mess left by Labour’s ‘open-door’ immigration policy, a devastating report reveals today.
The true scale of the backlog in the immigration system is exposed by MPs who conclude it now tops more than 500,000 cases.
The total is the equivalent of a city the size of Manchester. And at current rates of progress it will take 37 years to deal with, the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee said.
The backlog caused by Labour's open borders policy will take four decades to fix
Since its last report only three months ago its estimate of the backlog has increased by 190,000 after officials revealed a previously undocumented number of cases.
Astonishingly, officials could not be sure that more backlogs would not be uncovered.
The report prompted calls for an end to spending cuts to the immigration system to ensure further backlogs do not develop.
The committee’s chairman, Labour MP Keith Vaz, said that despite the abolition of the UK Border Agency and immigration moving back under the remit of the Home Office, nothing appeared to have changed ‘apart from the name’.
Labour MP Keith Vaz, said that, nothing appeared to have changed 'apart from the name'
He called for the replacement of senior staff and for a moratorium on bonuses for top Home Office officials until the backlogs were cleared.
Sir Andrew Green, chairman of the MigrationWatch think-tank, warned of the dangers of cuts in the number of border and immigration staff. The total is expected to fall by more than one fifth by 2015, equivalent to around 5,200 individuals.
Sir Andrew said: ‘Given that the previous government admitted four million immigrants and left the immigration system in chaos, it is no surprise that it is not yet fixed.
‘Nor will it be fixed until the Government takes an entirely different view of the importance of border controls. Given the billions that we throw at Afghanistan and more billions at the aid budget, the amount spent on the border is trivial. This cannot continue.’
Immigration Minister Mark Harper said the decision to kill off the ‘troubled’ UK Border Agency and take immigration back inside the Home Office would pay dividends.
‘The new UK Visa and Immigration Service has a clear focus to improve visa performance and customer service, while the Immigration Enforcement command concentrates on those who break our immigration laws,’ he said. ‘Both now report directly to ministers, delivering greater transparency and accountability.’
The committee concluded that the backlog of cases stands at 502,467. That includes 33,500 ‘legacy’ asylum cases and 7,000 ‘legacy’ immigration cases, the remnants of the backlog of 450,000 cases discovered in 2006.
Immigration Minister Mark Harper said the decision to kill off the 'troubled' UK Border Agency and take immigration back inside the Home Office would pay dividends
Another 190,615 cases are contained in the so-called Migration Refusal Pool. It holds previously legal migrants whose visas have expired but where there is no record of them leaving the country.
In addition, officials are considering more than 16,000 applications to stay in Britain as a result of marriage or civil partnership.
Among the backlogs uncovered are rising numbers of foreign criminals who have been released on to the streets as they await deportation. That figure was up 122 in three months, and now tops 4,000.
The new 190,000 cases are classed as ‘temporary and permanent migration’ and are applications for visa extensions and leave to remain from those who are already in Britain.
There are also some 61,000 cases waiting to be loaded on to an internal computer system, the Case Information Database.
Will the Border Agency and Immigration staff be reprimanded for not doing the job they were paid to do which was to keep illegals and undesirables out and which as this report shows they failed miserably in doing so?? - Fx
