Home Office ignored warning that asylum amnesty could allow terrorists into Britain
THE Home Office ignored warnings that an asylum ‘amnesty’ risked allowing war criminals, terrorists and other serious offenders to remain in Britain, the Mail can reveal.
Ministers were told a streamlined process to clear a backlog of 92,000 asylum claims could mean undesirables would slip through the net.
The fast-track scheme allows migrants to be granted refugee status on the basis of a ten-page questionnaire with face-toface interviews and other safeguards abandoned in most cases for speed.
The Mail can reveal civil servants told ministers in writing the process would fail to identify ‘bad guys’ including members of terrorist organisations. As a result, they would receive the right to remain in the UK instead of being refused asylum and put on a deportation list.
A Home Office insider said: ‘Official advice warned there was a real risk that war criminals, members of terrorist groups and serious criminals would be missed under this fast-tracking scheme.
‘It was put in writing to make sure ministers took responsibility and couldn’t just blame civil servants if something went badly wrong.
‘The warnings were ignored and the fast-track programme went ahead anyway.
‘The process is less rigorous so, inherently, there is more risk of bad guys getting in.’
It comes after Rishi Sunak warned that hostile states will increasingly ‘drive people to our shores’ to destabilise Western nations unless leaders crack down on illegal migration and revamp asylum conventions.
In a speech in Italy, the Prime Minister said failure to act would lead to growing numbers that will ‘ overwhelm’ Britain and other countries. He said unless action was taken ‘ our enemies will see how unable we are to deal with this – they will increasingly use migration as a weapon: deliberately driving people to our shores to try to destabilise our societies’.
The Home Office’s fast-track scheme – announced in February – was initially applied to Libyans, Syrians, Afghans, Eritreans and Yemenis.
Those who arrived in Britain before June 28 last year were able to apply, including small boat migrants. In June, the cutoff date was extended to migrants who had arrived by March this year, and expanded to include Sudanese nationals.
At least 20,000 asylum seekers are believed to have been eligible to apply.
More than 95 per cent of applications were expected to be granted, allowing them to settle permanently in Britain and sponsor relatives to join them.
When it was announced critics dubbed the scheme an ‘asylum amnesty in all but name’.
At the time, officials said the ‘vast majority’ of cases would go ahead without an asylum interview but the Home Office insisted applicants would still undergo security and crime checks under the programme.
But sources said the official internal advice warned the fasttrack nature of the programme risked mistakes being made.
A year ago, the PM committed to clearing 92,000 asylum backlog cases – from an overall pile of just under 149,000 – by the end of this year. Latest figures show 74,000 have been cleared.
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘ Every asylum seeker undergoes mandatory security and biometric checks... to identify those who may have been involved in criminality.’