UK Border Agency criticised as 60,000 asylum seekers 'vanish'

At least 60,000 asylum seekers will be lost without trace as the UK Border Agency struggles to clear its backlog of claims, MPs said yesterday.

They will be left in limbo as their claims are consigned to a growing pile of applications unlikely to ever be resolved, the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee said.

Of the backlog of up to 450,000 claims identified in 2006, at least one in seven "will be concluded on the basis that the UK Border Agency (UKBA) has been completely unable to trace what has happened to the applicant", the MPs said.

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In a critical report, the MPs found the UKBA was "still failing to meet expectations" with delays and backlogs being attributed "at least in part to inadequate decision-making in the first instance".

"While we agree that the UK Border Agency should not spend unlimited time trying to track down missing applicants, we are concerned about the high proportion of cases which will be left, in effect, in limbo," the report said.

"Again, this points to the vital need to deal with cases as expeditiously as possible and not to let backlogs grow."

Committee chairman Keith Vaz added: "Much of the delay in concluding asylum and other immigration cases stems from poor quality decision making when the application is initially considered.

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"The UK Border Agency has made some progress over the last few years in relation to new procedures and approaches, but is still failing to meet expectations.

"More consistent and rigorous scrutiny of applications would lead to fewer delays, fewer appeals, less uncertainty for the applicant, less pressure on the officials themselves, and probably lower costs for the UK taxpayer."

Greater investment in staff training and a "more consistent and considered direction from those setting policy" may both be needed, he said.

The backlog of up to 450,000 unresolved asylum cases first emerged in 2006, with some dating back more than a decade.

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Several steps have been taken to clear the backlog and asylum seekers who have not been able to be traced by UKBA officials, and who have not appeared on watchlists for at least six months, are consigned to a "controlled archive".

UKBA's departing chief executive Lin Homer told the committee that very few of these would "come alive again", meaning they were unlikely ever to be decided.

The MPs' report also criticised the increased speed at which some of the cases in the backlog seem to have been resolved, with officials clearing 57,500 cases between July and September last year, up from only 15,500 cases between October 2009 and January 2010.

"We are concerned that in the rush to clear the backlog – not least as the clear-up rate initially was fairly slow – principle may be being sacrificed to the timetable, and grants of settlement may be made that would not be allowed in other circumstances," the MPs said.

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Concerns were also raised over training and supervision of those involved in the enforced removal of failed asylum claimants.

"We are not at all convinced that the UK Border Agency is being effective in making sure that its contractors provide adequate training and supervision of their employees in respect of the use of force. This is a fundamental responsibility of the agency and is not simply a matter of clauses in contracts or formal procedural requirements."

And it also questioned Ms Homer's 208,000 salary – 66,000 more than that of Prime Minister David Cameron – and recommended that "a significantly lower salary should be paid to her successor".

The report also found that about 70 foreign prisoners released before 2005 without being considered for deportation had still not been found.

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