UKBA has 'Bermuda Triangle' of lost migrants, MPs say

[dutchman]

The UK Border Agency faces a backlog of more than 275,000 failed migrants who need to be removed from Britain, MPs on the home affairs committee have said.

For the first time in their tri-annual report on the agency, MPs collated all categories of cases not yet resolved.

Chairman and Labour MP Keith Vaz said the agency appeared to have "acquired its own Bermuda Triangle".

The Home Office said the report raised "legitimate concerns" about issues it was aware of and was already tackling.

A spokesman said the MPs had also highlighted improvements it had made to tackle "the huge backlog of cases we inherited".

"Over 2,000 overstayers have recently been removed following targeted enforcement activity, foreign national offenders are being removed more quickly and we are performing well against visa processing targets," he said.

Mr Vaz said the backlog of UK Border Agency (UKBA) cases awaiting resolution was "now equivalent to the entire population of Newcastle upon Tyne".

"It's easy to get in, but near impossible to keep track of anyone, let alone get them out," he said.

The committee said it would take the UKBA "years" to clear the backlog and it was concerned the agency might not have enough resources to do so.

The committee said the backlog included:
At least 150,000 migrants who had been refused permission to stay in the UK
21,000 asylum cases
3,900 foreign offenders living in the community
57 foreign criminals released in 2006 without being considered for deportation and who had not yet been traced
80,000 asylum applications and 21,500 immigration cases in the "controlled archive" of cases where the UKBA had lost track of the applicant

MPs said the UKBA "does not have a strong record in deporting foreign national offenders".

It recommended that the agency establish a team to examine why foreign criminals in the community had not been sent home and to ensure they were deported.

MPs also criticised the way border officials responded to tip-offs about suspected illegal immigrants. They said although intelligence reports were assessed quickly very few were acted upon.