Report raises concerns over backlog of cases and the continued detention of children
Parliament's Home Affairs Select Committee last week published its latest quarterly report on the work of the Immigration Directorates.
Image credit: UK GovernmentThe report, covering April-June 2015, can be read here in HTML and here in PDF.
In the report, the Committee welcomed the Prime Minister's commitment to resettle 20,000 Syrians before the end of this Parliament. However, it said the Government should do more to explore how members of the public can help provide ongoing support, in particular in the provision of housing to refugees which is likely to be one of the bottlenecks on where they will be able to be resettled.
On the subject of the asylum and immigration caseload, the Committee said it was concerned that over a third of the legacy immigration cases have been found to be duplicates. The report welcomed that fact there has been a gradual reduction of the legacy immigration caseload, but noted that the number of conclusions fell dramatically from Q2 2014, and at the same time the number of cases entered onto the system actually rose slightly between Q4 2014 and Q1 2015.
The report also noted that the current backlog of cases stood at 318,159 and there had been an increase between Q1 and Q2, with the Migration Refusal Pool being the biggest contributor to the backlog. The Committee says clearing the backlogs must be a priority.
Chair of the Committee, Keith Vaz MP, said: "To run a credible immigration and asylum system, the Home Office must once and for all tackle the historical backlog of cases and deal with those that arrive in a timely and efficient way. This undermines confidence in the system and should be addressed immediately."
On immigration detention, the Committee noted that the number of asylum seekers and other migrants detained for administrative purposes has increased. The report also said that it was unacceptable that there had been a sudden increase in the number of children in detention at the beginning of 2015, after the Government said it would stop placing children in detention.
Keith Vaz said: "It is a cause for deep worry that the number of children being detained for immigration purposes has increased. No child should be subjected to detention."
The Committee recommends that the Government should publish the Stephen Shaw review of the immigration detention estate and its response as soon as possible to inform the remaining stages of the Immigration Bill.
As the Prime Minister and Home Secretary continue to maintain the desire to see net migration fall below 100,000, the Committee emphasised in the report that an immigration target with an arbitrary figure is difficult to achieve as "you simply cannot control the number of people who leave the country and have very limited ability to control migration from EU member states."
The Committee also called on the Government to look again at the issue of whether student numbers should be included in the net migration figure.