Report on Home Office response to migrants entering the UK concealed in a heavy goods vehicle among three published
The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration has today published three reports on the work of the Home Office.
Image credit: UK GovernmentA 44-page report looking at the Home Office's handling of migrants who entered the UK concealed in a heavy goods vehicle can be read here.
An inspection of the intelligence functions of Border Force and Immigration Enforcement is available here.
Finally, a 172-page inspection report of Home Office country of origin information is available here.
The Home Office's response to the reports can be accessed here.
It was the report on so-called "lorry drops" that gained media headlines, with the Telegraph saying the report found immigration officers were struggling to cope with a sharp rise in immigrants smuggled illegally into the UK on lorries coming through the Channel tunnel.
According to the Telegraph, the number of "clandestine entrants" discovered by immigration officers rose to 6,429 in the six months to the end of September 2015 from 2,411 in the same period in 2014.
The Guardian reported that immigration officers had been "overwhelmed" by the surge, causing other immigration enforcement activities, such as tackling human trafficking, to be almost completely halted in some parts of England.
The Chief Inspector said in a press release that the Home Office had maintained the quality of its initial response despite the significant increase in 'lorry drops'. The report also found that:
• there was a risk that minors placed in the care of social services would run away
• the Home Office was not as strong when identifying potential victims of trafficking
• the number of initial decisions on asylum claims fell well short of the increased number of claims made.