Home Office loses 56,000 foreigners liable for deportation
Home Office loses 56,000 foreigners liable for deportation - including convicted criminals and illegal immigrants
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The Home Office has lost track of tens of thousands of foreign nationals liable to be removed from the country, and there is little evidence it is trying to find most of them, an independent inspector has found.
The Home Office has lost track of tens of thousands of foreign nationals liable to be removed from the country, and there is little evidence it is trying to find most of them, an independent inspector has found.
Nearly 56,000 foreign nationals including convicted criminals and illegal immigrants have disappeared from officials’ radar after being told they are liable to leave.
The tally of “declared absconders” includes more than 700 foreign national offenders (FNOs) who went missing after being released into the community, according to two new reviews by the Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration Ministers admitted that the studies by David Bolt made for "difficult reading".
Around 80,000 foreign nationals are currently required to check in regularly at police stations or immigration centres while officials prepare for them to leave the country.
The numbers required to report routinely mean that it is extremely difficult for staff David Bolt, Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration
The number includes those who have entered the country unlawfully, breached their original conditions of entry, face deportation as a result of committing a crime, and asylum seekers.
But by the end of 2016, there were a total of 55,974 declared absconders who had failed to keep appointments and “whose whereabouts are unknown and all mandatory procedures to re-establish contact with the migrant have failed”.
The inspector warned there is "little evidence" that effective action is being taken to locate the vast bulk of absconders.
A second report found that attempts to remove foreign national offenders (FNOs) were often frustrated by last minute legal hurdles. In one example, inspectors had also found a foreign criminal had failed to turn up for his appointment 19 consecutive times before action was taken.
Mr Bolt said: "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 FNOs 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."
If there is no immediate prospect of deportation or removal, a foreign offender who has completed their custodial sentence may be released into the community.
The most recent official figures showed there were 5,728 FNOs who were subject to deportation action living in the community.
Last year there were 9,288 planned removals of FNOs, but only two-thirds were successful.
Caseworkers said difficulties in obtaining travel documents hindered removals and there was "considerable evidence" of individuals making last-minute asylum claims, lodging judicial review applications and in some cases avoiding enforcement teams to frustrate planned removals, according to the report.
Brandon Lewis, immigration minister, 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.”
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