UKBA failing to deal with immigration backlog

A new report by a government immigration inspector suggests that the UK Border Agency doesn’t have an adequate system in place for dealing with the rising number of foreign nationals in Britain who are staying on even though their visas have expired. The report claims that the number remaining in the country without the proper paperwork has risen beyond 150,000.

John Vine, the author of the report said the majority of those remaining are former students. He added that immigration officials were not able to say how many of those who have been told to leave the UK had actually done so.

The report focuses on the problem of people from outside Europe who may have overstayed the time permitted on their visas. If they do not leave when they are told to then there names are placed in the Migration Refusal Pool. Mr Vine said that there are currently more than 150,000 cases in the UK of migrants who have not been allowed an extension of stay.

However, the UKBA has no idea how many are still waiting to be removed and how many may have left already. Mr Vine also said that he was not aware that the Agency had any process in place which will ensure that the issue does not become yet another work backlog.

According to Immigration Minister Damian Green the situation is the fault of the previous government which did not have a strategy for making sure that immigrants left the country once their visas expired. He said that the UKBA was now working to make sure that over-stayers are made to leave.