Rejected Asylum Seekers Given ‘Amnesty’

[Jacaylbaro]

Hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers will be allowed to remain in the UK, with the Home Office accused of failing to make inroads into a huge backlog of cases.

 

The move has been described by shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve as an "effective amnesty".

Two years ago, 450,000 asylum cases, some dating back to the mid-1990s, required processing and only 90,000 of the files have since been processed.

 

Courts will now block certain deportations on human rights grounds as some of the asylum seekers have lived in Britain for so long. The asylum seekers allowed to remain in Britain will be able to claim benefits and gain British citizenship.

 

Grieve said: "This exercise should be about reviewing applications properly and granting asylum in genuine cases. "The government should not be tempted to grant an effective amnesty just to get the backlog cleared, and achieve a good headline."

 

Of the 1,013 foreign criminals found to have been living illegally in Britain, just 308 have been deported. Charles Clarke was sacked as home secretary over the scandal in 2006.

 

On this issue, Grieve said: "It is outrageous that over two years after this scandal cost a home secretary his job, the government still have only managed to deport less than a third of these foreign prisoners and haven’t even found over 100 of them."

 

A Home Office spokesman told Friday’s Telegraph: "Significant progress has been made: ninety per cent of these foreign criminal cases have either been removed, told by a court they can stay, don’t meet our criteria for removal, are currently serving prison sentences or are in the process of being deported."

 

 

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