42-year-old power lifter Vincent Onwubiko, from south-east London’s Lewisham, represented Britain at the 1995 and 1997 Stoke Mandeville Games and also at the 1996 Birmingham World Champion of Champions event.

Onwubiko arrived in the UK in 1994 and is currently married to a British woman and has an 11-year-old daughter as a result of the partnership. However, he was sentenced to five months in jail in 2007 for driving while disqualified. He had previously been convicted on two occasions of careless driving.

Onwubiko, who is confined to a wheelchair as a result of polio, was arrested by agency officials at the end of his prison sentence and taken to the removal Centre at Dover. Onwubiko has stated that the centre refused to admit him due to his not having the use of his legs. As a result, he was then taken to south London’s Brixton prison where he was eventually granted bail in January 2008. He has been in detention ever since last August following his call for an interview.

He is due to be deported from the UK today out of Heathrow Airport, although supporters have said that they may have won a stay on his deportation. Their defence is that his physical condition requires proper medical treatment and that prison was inappropriate.

The Home Office has said that Onwubiko’s deportation was in light of his string of convictions and that there were no legal actions that would prevent them doing so.

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Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Committee, called the move astonishing given recent revelations concerning the abandonment of many unresolved case files. A review of UK Border Agency files had previously found that 40,000 cases involved no formal record of the whereabouts of immigrants who were asked to leave the UK, many of which had been unconfirmed for years. Vaz said that there were serious concerns about the efficiency of staff with a string of high profile errors having been discovered in the lengthy backlog of immigration files which itself had also attracted widespread condemnation.

Some 450,000 files were first uncovered three years ago, having been placed on the UKBA backburner with no action taken. To date, around half of these have been resolved with immigration authorities using the statistics to trumpet an apparently high removal rate. The Home Affairs committee investigated the 220,000 files marked concluded only to find that 88,500 of them, over 30 percent, contained errors.

Only 30,000 people on file have in fact been removed from the UK while 74,000 asylum seekers and dependents have been allowed to stay. The report was critical of ongoing delays as these can contribute to the building of a stronger family life in Britain and further reason to be granted leave to remain in the UK.

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Consequently, Johnson is undertaking a new promotional drive to convince the British public that immigration is a benefit for the UK as his party makes early moves in the election run-up. Labour will seek to use the right-wing sentiment over immigration by the Conservative and BNP parties to its advantage, with Johnson saying that the lack of proper debating has allowed extreme views to become more commonplace.

Johnson agreed with public feeling that Labour has ignored a debate but countered that this is exactly what they would get. Johnson has admitted that successive Labour governments had erred in immigration policy, labelling the incumbent’s approach as maladroit, but that his party would completely transform their handling of the issue of asylum seekers and immigration. Labour, Johnson says, has learnt from its mistakes.

The latest move continues the anti-BNP approach which was bolstered by the BBC Question Time programme which turned on BNP leader Nick Griffin. The Home Secretary said he felt the lack of debate had offered opponents a chance to distort the issue. Johnson’s Labour party did not attend the televised talks and despite saying he would debate immigration with BNP at any time Johnson has so far refused to appear alongside the controversial Griffin. The Home Secretary says he will not share a platform with a fascist.

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The first forcible removal of Zimbabweans was halted in September of 2006, pending a high court battle that ended in a ruling recognizing that those who were unable to demonstrate loyalty to Mugabe risked persecution if they were sent back home.

Phil Woolas said that the enhanced cash package was intended to encourage failed asylum seekers to return back home on their own free will. However, those who do not, will force the Home Office to take steps, over time, to enforce the law.

Mr Woolas went on to say that the UK Border Agency will be starting work during the autumn on a process aimed at normalizing their return policy to Zimbabwe. They wish to move back towards an enforced return plan for Zimbabweans when a political situation develops.

He also said that the Home Office took its obligations under the 1951 refugee convention seriously. Woolas continued that they will consider each case on its own merits and that those found not to be in need of protection will be return home, although they would prefer for those individuals to return home voluntarily. More information will be released at a later date.

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In the latest raid by UK Border Agency officials based on intelligence, ten people were found to be working illegally in the employment of the eight operations. Each business was issued with a Notice of Liability (NOL) at the time of the raids. As per stipulations, the businesses were allowed time to provide evidence that the mandatory pre-employment checks for the right to work were undertaken. The failure to produce this resulted in the fines being issued.

Salma Cuise in Wingham’s High Street was fined £10,000 for hiring two illegal workers. The owner had been provided with fake passports and NOL numbers but claimed they looked genuine. The employees had been working under the false identification for well over a year. Owner Moynoor Rashid has complied completely with the UKBA and paid all of the fines.

Beano’s Cafe in Herne Bay’s was also found two have two illegal workers also fined accordingly. Owner Kosar Feti claimed that the staff had been employed by the previous owners.

A total of six other businesses in the area were found to have employed one illegal worker and issued with fines of £5,000 each. They included Kashmir Tandoori, Palace Street, High Streets’ Central Parade Kebabs, Pizza Company in Herne Bay, Island Road’s Spice Master, Azouma in Church Street and Westgate Kebabs on St Dunstan’s Street.

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The cases revolved around up to 40,000 migrants who have become illegal citizens following the rejection of their applications for visa extensions dating back to 2003. Authorities are unable to confirm if those in question are even still in the country or did depart as required by law.

Homer made the disclosure in a personal letter describing the backlog some three years after the then Home Secretary John Reid called the office’s immigration department unfit to serve its purpose. As far back as 2006 Reid denounced authorities for their failure to enact suitable controls over the management of deportees and the growing backlog of unresolved cases.

According to the UK Border Agency, it is currently in the process of working through over 400,000 past asylum cases which still remain technically open, although the new findings have forced it to begin work on the 40,000 immigration files. The agency confirmed that it has recently turned more of its attention to the old immigration cases as they have no formal record of whether those in question have actually left the UK.

Ms Homer is hopeful of tracking down and removing those still in the UK and confirmed that most were refused visa extensions. The list will be compared to police databases to determine if any pose a threat to public safety.

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Earlier this week the UK Home Sectary Alan Johnson had stated that processing for Pakistani applications would be moved back to Islamabad after crisis talks with local authorities who focussed on the recent spate of violent protests around the country by mainly Pakistani students who have been outraged by recent delays in issuances. The issue became widespread last week as new rules took effect from October 1st which, along with the delays, meant hundreds of Pakistani students missed starting class at UK universities on time.

In September last year the decision was made to move the application centre offshore in the wake of the Marriott Hotel bombing, which took place just a few hundred metres from the British Embassy.

According to the UKBA the reason for delays was due to technical limitations with the Abu Dhabi processing system. Similar troubles have been experienced worldwide by the UKBA whose online processing system has been widely affected by poor internet connections.

The UKBA has further announced that the Abu Dhabi office would soon by handling more applications, mainly from Iran. Some Pakistani officials have queried why the UK continues to favour offshore processing when other countries such as the US do so within Pakistan with no problems.

The number of staff at the Abu Dhabi has grown from 45 to 146 since the start of the year. The office deals with around 2,000 applications every week with only one third accepted. Another third is thrown out due to document fraud or false papers.

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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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