| Date: 05/07/2012 Time: 09:53:00 AM |
At least 150,000 migrants have been refused
permission to stay in the UK and Chief inspector of the UK Border Agency
(UKBA) John Vine said on Thursday that there is no clear strategy to find out
what proportion of this growing number of migrants is still in the UK
illegally.
Tracking these absconders down and removing them from the country is not
seen as a priority for the agency, and there is no clear plan to ensure the
cases do not just become another backlog to deal with, Mr Vine said.
He added, "There are over 150,000 cases nationally of migrants who have
been refused an extension of stay in the UK.
"The agency does not know how many of these individuals have left the
country or who are waiting to be removed.
"I also saw no evidence that there is a clear plan in place for the agency
to deal with this stream of work to ensure this does not become another
backlog.
"I believe it can and must do more to demonstrate it is dealing with this
issue in a more proactive manner."
The extent of the problems emerged in an inspection of the Hampshire and
Isle of Wight local immigration team at the end of last year.
Cases involving migrants in the UK, such as students, who had been refused
an extension of stay were put in a so-called migration refusal pool and told
they must leave within 28 days, the report showed.
Migrants in the pool who were still in the UK included those who should
have left but had not done so, those who had applied for leave in another
category, who had outstanding appeals or other legal barriers, or who had left
the UK voluntarily by a route not captured by e-borders.
Staff underestimated the scale of the problem by about two-thirds, gauging
there were between 400 and 600 cases when there were 1,893 in the area on
December 12, Mr Vine said.
While the proportion of cases in the local team's pool remained at about 1.
2% of all national cases between October and December, the number nationally
increased every week from 153,821 on October 17 to 159,313 on December 12,
UKBA figures showed.
An analysis of 44 cases by the inspectors found less than half had left the
UK, 20 voluntarily and one as an enforced removal. Of the remaining 23, the
inspectors said the "greatest concern" was that the absconder tracing process
was not always followed.
Nine of the absconders had not been added to the police national computer
as either "wanted" or with a "locate trace" marker. Some of the 23 were making
further appeals to stay, were serving prison sentences or awaiting travel
documents, the report showed.
Vine also raised concerns that the effectiveness of the intelligence used
to support arrest visits was not measured to ensure an efficient use of
resources. |