A sacked former inspector has warned that safety of the UK’s borders is “neither effective or efficient”.
David Neal, who was dismissed as chief inspector of borders and immigration final week, highlighted a string of failings in a damning collection of reviews. Among the findings in 13 long-awaited paperwork have been that asylum claims have been being rushed to be able to clear a mammoth backlog, and a whole lot of kids vanished between 2021 and 2023.
Mr Neal additionally voiced alarm about smuggling protections, lack of correct tools at borders and a “culture of defensiveness” throughout the Home Office.
In one report, on the usage of ePassport gates, Mr Neal mentioned inspectors had discovered unmanned posts, which he branded “unacceptable”. And following the inspection in June final 12 months, he wrote: “On the basis of this inspection, I believe the protection of the border is neither effective nor efficient”.
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Mr Neal – who was sacked by Home Secretary James Cleverly after voicing alarm about alleged failure to hold out safety checks at City Airport in London – discovered over 150 unaccompanied kids have been unaccounted for.
The inspector wrote that 467 circumstances of kids going lacking from lodges between July 2021 and September final 12 months. And he mentioned 147 kids remained unaccounted for. He additionally mentioned kids might have been housed in venues the place stuff hadn’t undergone correct background checks. And the report, written final November, mentioned there’s “no evidence” of a Home Office technique to finish resort use.
An additional report discovered Rishi Sunak’s rush to clear 90,000 asylum circumstances “at all costs” was resulting in poor choices. Mr Neal wrote; “Routine quality assurance on interviews and decisions has also been sacrificed for increased productivity. This has the potential to add to the appeals queue as a result of poor-quality refusals, and to further prolong the length of time a claimant’s life is put on hold.”
Meanwhile there have been additionally fears that UK airports weren’t following procedures to sort out smuggling. Another report a “lack of anti-smuggling capability” at airports ought to be a “major concern” for Border Force and ministers. This “raises questions as to whether the border is secure from a goods perspective”, it mentioned.
Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper mentioned: “This is the border chaos the Tories are trying to hide. Ministers have sat on these devastating reports for months in a bid to hide their utter failure to protect our borders.
“From inadequate security checks at the border to spending billions on asylum hotels and unlawfully housing child refugees in inappropriate accommodation, the Conservative government have broken our immigration system. They have tried to bury this bad news, but the public deserve the truth.”
She went on: “The former Chief Inspector of Borders is damning on a failure of leadership, of poor communication from the Home Office and incomplete data. This is a government that has lost its way and on their watch our borders are less secure, and our asylum system is falling apart.”
The Home Office mentioned it had “delivered” on a promise to publish all overdue report as quickly as doable, including: “The publication of these reports that scrutinise the activity of the Home Office and make recommendations for improvement is in and of itself a demonstration of transparency and acceptance of independent scrutiny.”