UK Border Agency ‘dumped’ cases of missing migrants

The so-called “controlled archive” had become a “dumping ground for cases where the UK Border Agency has lost track of the applicant”, MPs on the Commons home affairs select committee said.

The language used to describe the lost cases has also been criticised by committee chair Keith Vaz. Mr Vaz said the euphemistic phrase is “a bureaucratic term which hides the true nature of a government department’s activity and is designed to deflect attention”.

It would more appropriately be called “an archive of lost applicants”, MPs said.

Dumping ground

The archive includes the cases of around 98,000 asylum seekers who cannot be found. The agency has no idea whether such applicants even remain in the UK, legally or otherwise.

It also includes around 26,000 migrants who have overstayed their visas or who have been refused an extension of leave, such as students. It follows a review of cases, most of which are more than eight years old,

The MPs said: “Whilst we appreciate the difficulties involved in tracing people with whom the agency have lost contact, usually for a period of several years, it is clear that the controlled archive has become a dumping ground for cases on which the agency has given up.

“The controlled archive has increased significantly as the deadlines for the legacy backlog and the migration case review have approached.

“From 18,000 files in November 2010, the archive now contains 124,000 files, roughly equivalent to the population of Cambridge.”