A leaked memo is causing embarrassment for the Home Office after it was revealed that authorities may not know the actual whereabouts of tens of thousands of migrants who were told they needed to leave the UK years ago.

Currently immigration staff are desperately working their way through some 40,000 files that date back to before 2003 of cases where individuals were advised they no longer qualified to reside in the UK. With some dating back to the 1990’s there exists a headache for authorities who admit that there may be still thousands of illegal migrants still in Britain. The number includes people who were at the time granted temporary leave, student visa holders, visitors and even workers who were all refused extensions. The Home Office has since conceded that it is unsure about the whereabouts of these thousands admitting many may still be residing illegally in the kingdom.

The latest news has strong echoes of the notorious asylum legacy backlog which resulted in close to half a million cases that were still open. The same staff who have been wading their way through that mess have now been tasked with the additional cases thought to number around 40,000.

The case was highlighted by the Liberal Democrats Home Affairs spokesperson Chris Huhne who claimed that it has been impossible for authorities to ascertain whether people had left the country since the abolition of exit checks by previous governments. Huhne also called for exit checks to be reinstated saying the problem will persist until such a move is made.

With parliament returning next week calls have been made to come clean on the numbers still unaccounted for. Reports claim the files on the migrants record their refusal for asylum but no evidence of leaving Britain.

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