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Asylum seekers data ignored

Border officials failed to pursue more than 3,000 leads identified on police databases when attempting to track down missing asylum seekers, an inspector has found.

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Inspector: Home Office must prioritise asylum cases

A follow-up investigation, after a report released in November last year, has shown a number of concerns with regards to UK border control.

Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration John Vine, who ordered the report, said there were some cases where information contained in paper files was not being used to trace applicants.

He added that work had not yet commenced on archived cases and active reviews that had been reopened as a result or positive data matching results.

I believe the Home Office needs to demonstrate to applicants, Parliament and the public that it has taken all reasonable action to identify whether individuals remain in the UK illegally.

While action had been taken to reopen archived cases following positive data matching results, I was concerned that no work had actually started on them. This was also true of active reviews.

The Home Office will now need to ensure that these cases are afforded priority and publish a realistic and achievable timescale for the completion of all legacy asylum and migration cases.

– John Vine, Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration
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Asylum seekers data ignored

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