Migrant chaos 'will take years to sort out'

The immigration service may not operate efficiently for years, its chief executive has admitted.

Lin Homeralso disclosed that at least 200 of the 1,019 offenders released without deportation hearings have been allowed to remain in Britain. Tony Blair has said there should be an automatic presumption that they would be removed.

Ms Homer, who became head of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) last year, admitted that IND had "let down" Charles Clarke, who was sacked as Home Secretary last month.

"I suspect it will continue to take us a number of years to become as strong in performance management as I would hope and expect us to be," she told the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee.

She blamed the mistakes on staff shortages, which meant details of foreign prisoners were filed away without action, and a shortage of managers to supervise junior staff.

Admitting IND's data collection was "not good", she could not tell MPs how many more serious foreign offenders had been detained recently or how many had been picked up and then released again on bail. She said that eight serious offenders were still on the run.