IT HAS been revealed that only 1.5% of allegations against immigrants result in removals from the UK.
According to the Home Affairs Committee, the UK Border Agency had 432,029 unresolved cases regarding migrants and asylum seekers. Recognizing that at the time of its dissolution, the UKBA had such a high number of unresolved cases in its backdrop, head of the Home Affairs Committee and Labour MP Keith Vaz called on the government to solve this pressing problem.
After separating the cases into allegations and removals, the Home Affairs Committee found that only 6% of the allegations were actually investigated and 1.5% resulted in removals from the UK.
The government on the other hand responded to these critiques by stating that they were strengthening the regulations against illegal immigrants.
Accprding to Vaz, The fact that so few allegations ended up being investigates by the Allegations Management System, could discourage citizens from notifying the authorities about their suspicions.
178 NOTICES PER DAY
The Home Affairs Committee has received a total of 48,660 notifications from the public. This means an average of 178 calls per day between the dates of 30th September, the day of its formation and June 30th. MPs have suggested that the citizens notifying the government should be kept up to date with the developments regarding the case.
After receiving many criticisms, the UKBA was dissolved by the Secretary of the Home Office Theresa May. Instead the “UK Visa and Immigration” was formed and brought under the Home Office.
Minister of Immigration Mark Harper recognized that the UK BA had problems since the beginning of its formation in 2008 and thus it was found necessary to divide the agency into two units and bring it under the jurisdiction of the Home Office.
Mr. Harper claimed that the UK Visa and Immigration focused on providing a better and quicker service to people. He added that the Immigration Enforcement unit was focused on hardening the conditions for illegal immigrants.
Mr. Harper also reminded that the net number of immigrants had been decreased by a third since 2010, due to new regulations in the immigration laws.
On the other hand, Shadow Minister of Immigration David Hanson criticized the government’s approach to the issue and said that the report revealed certain realities under this government. According to Mr. Hanson, the Conservative government has not been able to improve the issues of the regulations regarding immigration. Their out of date solutions like go – home vans were not effective in tackling the real problems, he concluded.