The UKBA were tasked with dealing with a backlog of cases that amounted to 450,000 individuals with a target of this summer to complete the process. The Home Affairs Committee, headed up by Keith Vaz, has concluded that the Agency's success in very nearly achieving their target has come thanks to new policies that have created an "amnesty" for people to stay.

"The net result is that a very large number of people remain in the UK who either have no right to be here, or who would have been removed had their cases been dealt with in a timely manner." Home Affairs Committe report

The Committee also described as "indefensible" the admittance by the UKBA that in one in six cases they have no idea where the asylum seeker applicant is. The committee said that the target to break the backlog of cases had only been achieved "through increasing resort to grants of permission to stay".

When John Reid set about the task of dealing with the 450,000 case backlog in 2006 guidance for UKBA officials was that those who had resided in the UK for 10-12 years or more could be granted leave to stay - this has now been revised to 6-8 years later. The results, and conclusion by the Home Affairs Committee, is that the 161,000 granted leave to stay was "such a large proportion that it amounts in effect to an amnesty".

In total, 74,500 asylum seekers are unaccounted for, with no knowledge of "whether they are in the UK, have left the country or are dead."

The coalition have continued the Labour government's policy of refused entry for low-skilled workers from outside Europe, extending the restriction to include a capping on non-EU skilled workers. The committe report has revealed however that the checks on registered emloyers of these migrant workers had not been carried out effectively by the UKBA.

"The net result is that a very large number of people remain in the UK who either have no right to be here, or who would have been removed had their cases been dealt with in a timely manner."

The Blame Game

Immigration Minister Damien Green denied that there was an amnesty, and instead chose to focus on the elimination of the case backlog. Green went on to say:

"What we've done is get through to the bottom of that huge problem we inherited.

"The main thing is we've now eliminated this backlog from the system so we can now get on with the everyday job that the previous government couldn't because they had that backlog."

Mr Green cites the figures as an example of how effective the government has been over immigration. 126,000 (31 percent) of the 403,500 cases investigated have been concluded under the coalition government

However, Shadow Home Office Minister highlighted the cuts of 5,000 staff at the UKBA, with no revised targets in line with these cuts, as the main reason for the findings of the report:

"This report shows that managers and staff at UKBA consistently say there are not sufficient resources to track and return illegal immigrants.

"In addition, the report states that legacy asylum applications are increasingly being given permission to stay rather than the government seeking their removal. In the last few months there has been a significant decrease in the percentage of applicants and dependents sent home."