The U.K. has effectively operated abackdoor amnesty on illegal immigration for more than a decadebecause of failings in the government agency controlling entry,a panel of lawmakers said.
Of the backlog of as many as 450,000 asylum cases built upsince the late 1990s, 161,000 people have been granted leave toremain and the U.K. Border Agency has been unable to trace theapplicants in about 74,500 cases, the Home Affairs Committeesaid in a report published today.
“Ministers would have been unwilling to announce anamnesty for the applicants caught up in this backlog, not leastbecause this might be interpreted as meaning that the U.K. wasprepared more generally to relax its approach towardsmigration,” the committee said. “But we consider that inpractice an amnesty has taken place, at considerable cost to thetaxpayer.”
Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative-led government,which took office a year ago, is making it harder to come to theU.K. in an effort to reduce net immigration to the “tens ofthousands.” The figure peaked at 233,000 in 2007 and stood at198,000 in 2009, government figures show.
“We have known for some time that the asylum system weinherited was chaotic,” Immigration Minister Damian Green saidin an e-mailed statement. “Some of these cases date back morethan a decade and the U.K. Border Agency was always clear thatbecause of the length of time many of these individuals havebeen in the country there would be no alternative to grantingthem leave to remain. There is no amnesty.”