MPs condemn asylum removals backlog

The Home Office is not removing failed asylum seekers "anywhere near fast enough", MPs have warned.

A report from the Commons public accounts committee said the Immigration and Nationality Directorate doesn't know how many failed asylum seekers remain in the UK.

It added that asylum policy has been undermined by the inability to deal promptly with asylum seekers whose initial application to stay in Britain fails.

And the IND "does not know how many failed asylum applicants remain in the country or where the majority are located, including over 400 criminals released from prison into the community".

More failed asylum seekers should be tagged or detained pending their removal, it added.

Progress

Speaking at a Number 10 press conference, the prime minister defended the government's record.

"The progress has been enormous," Tony Blair said.

"The numbers of asylum seekers are down to a fraction of what it was a few years ago.

"We are now removing five times as many failed asylum seekers as when we came into office.

"And the measures that we have taken, for example issuing identity cards for new asylum seekers, tracking them carefully, fast tracking their applications, handling their applications in far greater time, has changed the situation dramatically over these past three or four years."

But he accepted that "we still have further to go and more to do".

"In all the criticism don't forget the system is far better and more effective than it was 10 years ago and we are removing something like five times the numbers of people," he added.

Backlog

The backlog of removals is estimated at between 155,000 and 283,500

And Tuesday's report said the IND "could not be more precise as it had not kept track of, or collected sufficient data on, those who had changed address or left the country without informing the directorate".

"The directorate was removing around 1,350 failed applicants a month by September 2005, but this was still below the number of newly failed applicants, and hence the backlog is increasing," added the report.

Even if there were no new unsuccessful applicants, the report says that at current performance rates "it would take between 10 and 18 years to clear the existing backlog".

While some progress is now being made, the Home Office "faces a severe problem, arising from a loss of control in the past".

Integrity

Committee chairman Edward Leigh said that failed asylum applicants "are in increasing numbers staying in this country knowing that there is very little likelihood they will be apprehended and removed".

"The fact is that no one really knows how many of them remain in the UK or where most are living," he added.

"What we can be confident about is that the directorate is not removing failed asylum seekers anywhere near fast enough and the backlog of cases is growing.

"The situation is extremely serious and the Immigration and Nationality Directorate must take a hard look at its approach to removals.

"It must without delay establish a target for making substantial inroads on the backlog of older cases."

Leigh also warned that the "integrity of the UK's asylum application process is at stake".

Shocking

For the Conservatives, immigration spokesman Damian Green said the report was "a shocking indictment of the state of the asylum system under Labour".

"It is disgraceful that the government does not know where failed asylum seekers are or how many are leaving the country," he added.

"This chronic lack of basic information is undermining any attempts to establish a civilised and credible asylum policy.

"It is all very well for the committee to call for tougher targets to be set but the government has form for setting tough asylum targets only to abandon them as soon as they become unachievable.

"Given that almost the same amount of people work in human resources and finance in the IND, than do on enforcement and removals it is no wonder our asylum system is in such chaos."

Failure

And Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: "This is further evidence of the Home Office's inability to administer the asylum system.

"Failure to deal with asylum seekers whose applications fail undermines faith in the whole system. 

"With a backlog of applications estimated at anything from 150,000 upwards, the government should take immediate steps to redirect resources to implement a fair and efficient system of enforcement and removal."