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Border scandal: 500,000 passengers allowed to enter Britain without checks
More than 500,000 people were allowed into Britain unchecked due to the repeated suspension of vital checks, opening up an "unacceptable" breach in the country's defences against terrorists and criminals, an official investigation has found. At times immigration staff acted potentially illegally by relaxing the supervision of travellers entering this country at least 15,000 times in the last five years, John Vine, the independent inspector of the Border Agency, found.
His report, published yesterday afternoon, left Theresa May, the Home Secretary, facing fresh questions about her grip on border security and the Coalition's failure to get a grip on problems she claimed had began under Labour. Labour accused her of "hiding from her responsibilities" by blaming her staff after figures showed the number of times that restrictions were relaxed increased significantly after the Coalition came to power in May 2010.
The 84-page report paints a picture of confusion, mismanagement and miscommunication. "Overall, I found poor communication, poor managerial oversight and a lack of clarity about roles and responsibilities," he concluded. Mrs May responded to the report by announcing that the UK Border Force would be split off from the UK Border Agency and made directly accountable to ministers. She also told MPs that the problems began under Labour. "There is no getting away from the fact that UKBA, of which the Border Force is part, has been a troubled organisation since it was founded in 2008," she said. However, Mr Vine's report suggested that relaxations of border checks have been more frequent and widespread under the Coalition. Posted by: lotp 2012-02-21 |
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