[guide.chat] 124,000 immigrants and prisoners free
- From: "vanessa" <qwerty1234567a@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "GUIDE CHAT" <guide.chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2011 12:10:19 -0000
Border officials have lost track of 124,000 asylum seekers and migrants -
equivalent to the population of a town the size of Cambridge - according to
report by MPs.
UK Border Agency figures show the number of cases "lost" has tripled from
40,500 in March.
The Commons Home Affairs Select Committee's report said the so-called
controlled archive was being used as a "dumping ground" for cases the agency
has given up on.
The UK Border Agency is still not providing the efficient, effective service
that Parliament expects.
Home Affairs Committee Chair Keith Vaz
It lists around 98,000 cases where asylum seekers cannot be found and the
agency has no idea whether or not the applicant are still in the UK, legally or
otherwise.
The total includes around 26,000 migrants who have overstayed their visas or
who have been refused an extension of leave, such as students.
The committee said: "Whilst we appreciate the difficulties involved in tracing
people with whom the agency have lost contact, usually for a period of several
years, it is clear that the controlled archive has become a dumping ground for
cases on which the agency has given up.
"From 18,000 files in November 2010, the archive now contains 124,000 files,
roughly equivalent to the population of Cambridge."
KEITH VAZ: ?DEEP CONCERN? OVER FIGURES
Committee chairman Keith Vaz said: "The UK Border Agency is still not providing
the efficient, effective service that Parliament expects.
"The Prime Minister himself recently called for members of the public to
provide intelligence on immigrants.
"There is little point in encouraging people to do this if the Border Agency
continues to fail to manage the intelligence it receives or to keep track of
those who apply to stay."
He added: "We are deeply concerned with the number of foreign prisoners
released from prison who are unaccounted for - 350 out of a total of 1,000 last
year and we are desperately worried about the number of files lost."
Shadow immigration minister Chris Bryant said: "These numbers betray a shocking
failure at the heart of this Tory-led Government."
Vanessa The Google Girl.
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