by Lady Michelle-Jennifer Santos, Chief Visionary Founder & Owner
July 13, 2013 (TSR) – The queue of people waiting in the United Kingdom to be dealt with in the shambolic immigration system will take 37 years to clear, a senior MP revealed yesterday.
The figure includes immigrants applying to stay in the country, asylum seekers and 4,102 foreign offenders waiting to be deported which could fill Wembley Stadium to capacity six times over, Daily Mirror reports.
“The backlog of cases has now hit a staggering half a million people, ” Keith Vaz, chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said.
“At the current rate it will take 37 years to clear and the Home Office cannot confirm that this is the last of the backlogs,” he added.
Asked if it could be fixed, Sarah Rapson, head of the new UK Visas and Immigration service, replied, “I don’t think so.”The service was set up after Home Secretary Theresa May abolished the Border Agency.
But the committee warned the move was in danger of being an “exercise in rebranding” unless top people were replaced.
“There should be no more bonuses paid to senior management at the Home Office until backlogs are cleared,” Mr Vaz said.
The committee added it was “deeply concerned” to discover that spending on external consultants in the final three months of last year increased 20-fold from £27,000 in the previous quarter to more £500,000.
The group of MPs said, “The use of external consultants has been actively discouraged across Whitehall as spending cuts take their toll on budgets.
“We expect the Home Office to clarify why this huge increase has occurred,” they said.
“The UK Border Agency was a troubled organisation for many years, which is why the Home Secretary took the decision to split the agency in March this year,” Immigration Minister Mark Harper said.
“The new UK Visas and Immigration Service has a clear focus to improve visa performance and customer service, while the Immigration Enforcement Command concentrates on those who break our immigration laws, ” Harper explains.
“Both now report directly to ministers, delivering greater transparency and accountability,” the minister said.
“It will take a long time to clear the backlogs we inherited – but through the changes we have made we are in a much stronger position to do so,” he added.
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NOTE: Understand this and take this into consideration this type of backlog, giving asylum to Snowden is not easy. Many asylum applications deserve their cases heard and be given as well. I have personally met and known refugees. They are just as persecuted and have been going through worse than someone who earned a 6 figure income and lived in a Hawaiian suburb. I acknowledge that there is political agendas, however, it is also important to be fair, and look at all sides of the situation. This is what many countries mean also when they said that Snowden need to abide by their laws. and protocol. Snowden is not being treated as a celebrity, but just like everyone else applying because it is not fair for the others whose lives have been under threat for many years and have been stateless for longer time than Snowden. Needless to say, many seekers who have been waiting for many years to be placed somewhere feel and will resentment towards Snowden. If Snowden was allowed to skip the others, it will also make many feel angry and hateful towards USA, because they will Americans (or white Caucasians) are given special privileges “as usual”.
