Committee raises concerns over quality of monitoring immigration
Summary
The Home Affairs Committee found a number of issues with the standards of the UK Border Agency’s efforts, as detailed in the report 'The Work of the UK Border Agency’ (HC 587-I).
The general public and individuals using the Agency’s services are not receiving response at an adequate rate. In particular, the continuing threat of delays and backlogs in processing asylum applications is a significant problem, which is attributed at least in part to inadequate decision-making in the first instance.
The Committee emphasises previous recommendations regarding the tightening of registration and inspection of colleges in order to close down false institutions established mainly for people to bypass the restrictions on work-related immigration to the UK.
It raises concerns that the programme to clear the historic backlog of 400–450,000 asylum cases will end in July 2011 with the Agency having been unable to discover what has happened to the claimants in up to one in seven (61,000) of the cases.
The passage of time means that the UK Border Agency is unlikely to trace 70 of the 1013 Foreign National Prisoners whose release without deportation led to Mr. Charles Clarke’s resignation as Home Secretary in 2005.
There are also concerns about the standard of the training and supervision of those involved in the enforced removal of unsuccessful asylum claimants.
Finally, in the current economic situation, it is the Committee's belief that a significantly lower salary should be paid to the successor of the outgoing head of the Agency.
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