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140,000 people living in UK illegally have been told to leave but many have gone missing, reveals new report

Up to 60,000 foreign nationals have failed to turn up for regular check-ins

Benjamin Kentish
Thursday 02 November 2017 20:59 GMT
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The report also demands better criminal and security checks at borders
The report also demands better criminal and security checks at borders

Tens of thousands of people living illegally in the UK have dropped off the Home Office’s radar and been declared “absconders”, a damning new report has revealed.

The study by David Bolt, the Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration found that 140,000 people have been told they face removal from the UK.

Of those 80,000 people are expected to report regularly to a Home Office centre or police station so authorities can keep track of their whereabouts.

This means that 60,000 foreign nationals have at some stage absconded, meaning the Government does or did not know where they are. Some of them are likely to have left the country.

In December 2016, almost one in 10 (nine per cent) of those required to report to authorities failed to turn up – a total of 7,000 people.

The report was passed to Home Secretary Amber Rudd in May but has only now been published.

It gives the first clear indication of how many people who are living the UK illegally have been told they face action to remove them.

Mr Bolt criticised Home Office procedures and highlighted “poor internal communication and coordination” as a factor behind officials losing track of thousands of people, including known offenders.

There is “little evidence that effective action was being taken to locate the vast bulk of absconders,” he said.

The finding is likely to raise questions about the Home Office’s efforts to create a “hostile environment” for people living in the UK illegally.

The policy was introduced under Theresa May during her time as Home Secretary. Speaking in 2012, Ms May said: “The aim is to create here in Britain a really hostile environment for illegal migration.”

Mr Bolt said “hostile environment” measures introduced in the Immigrations Acts of 2014 and 2016 had instead helped create a system where foreign criminals in the UK are able to disappear.

Before the changes, foreign offenders in the UK were often given accommodation on their release from prison, enabling authorities to keep an eye on them.

However, the two Acts made it harder for foreign national offenders (FNOs) in the UK to access services, including, housing.

As a result, Mr Bolt concluded, “the Home Office did not have a fixed address for some FNOs at the point they were released”.

The Chief Inspector’s reports focused on the Home Office’s system of monitoring those without rights to remain in the UK, and on the management of FNOs who have been told to leave the country.

Downing Street says soaring population proves UK needs tougher immigration laws

He concluded: “In both cases, I found people and processes under strain. The numbers required to report routinely mean that it is extremely difficult for staff at reporting centres to ensure that reporting events are ‘meaningful’, in terms of encouraging voluntary departures or resolving barriers to removal.

“Meanwhile, the removal of foreign national offenders is regularly frustrated, often by last-minute legal challenges, and monitoring non-detained FNOs effectively is a challenge and one that raises obvious public protection concerns.”

The failures were in part a result of “poor communication and coordination within the Home Office, he said.

“The inspection found that recording and treatment of non-compliance with reporting restrictions was inconsistent, and there was little evidence of effective action to locate absconders,” he added.

In response to the report, immigration minister Brandon Lewis said: “People who have no right to live in this country should be in no doubt of our determination to remove them. Our priority is to progress cases towards voluntary and – if necessary – enforced departures and we have removed more than 38,600 foreign offenders since 2010.

“This week, like every week, more than 100 foreign criminals will be removed from the UK.

“Elements of these reports make for difficult reading, but we are committed to a programme of transformation. That is why we are conducting a fundamental review of how we establish and maintain contact with those who have not complied with restrictions placed on their stay in the UK. Our future operations will be shaped by the outcome of this review.”

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