Asylum 'Amnesty' Allows 160,000 To Stay In UK.

A change in guidance for border officials has created an "amnesty" for asylum seekers, MPs have claimed.The Home Affairs Select Committee accused the UK Border Agency of being not fit for purpose and failing to effectively control immigration.The agency's target of clearing a backlog of 450,000 cases by this summer has been achieved largely through increasing the number of people allowed to stay, a report by the committee found.

And the MPs conclude a very large number of people remain in the UK who either have no right to be here or who would have been removed had their cases been dealt with earlier.

Keith Vaz , committee chairman, said: "Though progress has been made, it is clear that the UK Border Agency is still not fit for purpose.

"While there is no doubt that individual case workers are dedicated and hard-working, there are serious concerns over the agency's ability to deal with cases and respond to intelligence swiftly and thoroughly.

"The processes need to be efficient and fair in dealing with genuine students and those filling skills shortages, but tough and uncompromising to those who seek to abuse the system and stay illegally."

To clear the backlog, guidance was changed to allow officials to consider granting leave to remain to applicants who had been in the UK for between six and eight years.

That compares to the 10 to 12 years that applied at the start of the backlog process.

Some 403,500 cases were concluded, with just 38,000 (9%) having their claims rejected and being removed from the UK. But 161,000 (40%) were granted leave to remain.

The MPs maintain that such a large proportion amounts, in effect, to an amnesty.

Joseph Givans arrived from Jamaica 11 years ago and says he is still waiting for permission to stay in the UK permanently.

He is living in the West Midlands and being helped by the charitable organisation Brushstrokes.

"I can't get any money for the kids because I haven't got my stay," he said.

"I cannot sign on because I haven't got my stay. I can't get a home for my kids because I haven't got a stay.

"I haven't yet got the legal right to stay permanently in the country but I've been here all this time."

Immigration minister Damian Green denied there was an amnesty.

"This Government is overhauling the uncontrolled immigration system it inherited," he said.

"We are already radically reforming the points-based system and other routes of entry that have been subject to widespread abuse and will re-introduce exit checks by 2015.

"We are making greater use of intelligence to remove people with no right to be here and are concluding individual cases faster.

"We have known for some time that the asylum system we inherited was chaotic.

"Some of these cases date back more than a decade and the UK Border Agency was always clear that because of the length of time many of these individuals have been in the country there would be no alternative to granting them leave to remain. There is no amnesty."