The Work of UK Border Agency (November 2010-March 2011)

HC 929, Ninth Report of Session 2010-12 - Report, Together with Formal Minutes, Oral and Written Evidence

Author:

House of Commons - Home Affairs Committee

Publisher:

TSO (The Stationery Office)

Price: £11.00

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'The Work of UK Border Agency (November 2010-March 2011) (HC 929)' is the second in a series of reports into various aspects of the work of the UK Border Agency.

During the late 1990s and early 2000s the Home Office built up a backlog of between 400,000 and 450,000 unresolved asylum cases. The target for clearing this backlog is summer of 2011, and the UK Border Agency (UKBA) has made huge efforts to meet this deadline.

However the target seems to have been achieved largely through increasing resort to grants of permission to stay or archiving cases signifying that the applicant cannot be found and the Agency has no idea whether the applicant remains in the UK legally or otherwise.

Out of 403,500 cases dealt with by the UKBA since 2006, 40% of applicants have been allowed to stay. This was largely as a result of revised guidance allowing caseworkers to consider granting permission to stay to applicants who had been in the UK for six-eight years, rather than ten-twelve years.

Also, in about 74,500 of the 400,000 to 450,000 cases – approximately one in six – the UKBA has been completely unable to trace what has happened to the applicant. The Committee considers that this amounts to an amnesty - at considerable cost to the taxpayer.

The quality of initial decision making needs to improve to avoid the substantial delays, financial costs and human suffering that occur at present. The Committee also says that the UKBA has not carried out satisfactory checks on employers registered as sponsors of skilled migrants nor has it followed up intelligence of possible illegal migrants.

Extent	43 pages	ISBN	9780215559968
Size	A4	Price	£11.00
Format	Paperback	Published	02 Jun 2011
Availability	Colour copy: 3 - 5 days	Delivery	Delivery options and charges