56,000 facing deportation ‘have vanished’
Home Office cannot find thousands of foreigners liable to be expelled, including 700 criminals
THE Home Office has lost track of tens of thousands of foreign nationals liable to be expelled, 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 face measures to remove them.
The tally of “declared absconders” includes more than 700 foreign national offenders (FNOS) who vanished after being released into the community, claimed two reviews by the Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration.
Ministers last night 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 number includes those who have entered the country unlawfully, breached their original conditions of entry, face deportation for committing a crime and asylum seekers.
But by the end of 2016, there were 55,974 declared absconders “whose whereabouts is 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 bulk of them. A second report found that attempts to remove 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, an offender who has completed their jail term may be released into the community.
Recent official figures showed 5,728 FNOS subject to deportation living in the community. Last year, there were 9,288 planned removals of FNOS, but only two thirds were successful. Caseworkers said there was “considerable evidence” of individuals making lastminute asylum claims, lodging judicial review applications and some avoiding enforcement teams to frustrate planned removals, said the report.
Brandon Lewis, the immigration minister, said: “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. Elements of these reports make for difficult reading, but we are committed to a programme of transformation.”