Concerns over Border Agency backlog

The Home Affairs Committee has published its latest report on the work of the UK Border Agency, covering the second quarter of the year April– June 2012.

The report highlights concerns over the growth in the number of backlog cases the Agency is dealing with, which have increased by over 25,000 cases since the first quarter of this year.

Other areas of concern include:

New asylum cases

• The Committee doubts that the Agency is adequately equipped to deal with the increase in asylum applications, as the number of cases receiving an initial decision within 30 days has declined by 12%, and the number of cases waiting for an initial decision after six months has risen by 36% since June 2011.
• The Committee is also concerned about the quality of decision making. So far this year 13 people have been granted asylum in the UK following rejection of a previous claim and removal to their country of origin. Poor decision making may result in people being returned home when they face persecution and torture. The Committee is particularly worried about the plight of Tamils being returned to Sri Lanka and calls on the Agency to push for a re-evaluation of the risks posed to Tamil asylum seekers on return.

Sponsors and licencing

• Following the events at London Metropolitan University, the Committee recommends that the Agency should conduct further checks on international students who have already been accepted by the University to make sure they have permission to be in the UK and are complying with their visas. However, those that are found to be genuine should be allowed to continue their studies at the University.

Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v1.0.