More than 25,000 illegal immigrants a year stay in Britain due to Government inaction, official figures reveal. Thousands of enforcement cases and tip-offs are not followed up by the Home Office because they are not considered important enough, immigration officials have revealed.Their claims came after a Home Office memo was released ordering frontline immigration staff to stop deporting foreign students who are refused permission to stay in the UK once their visas run out.

In 2006, 28,540 foreign immigrants living in Britain - excluding asylum seekers - were refused permission to stay here by the Home Office. But in the same year only 12,830 were thrown out of the country or left voluntarily, leaving a backlog of almost 16,000.

Figures also reveal that 4,000 foreign prisoners complete their sentences each year without being deported, while the backlog of failed asylum seekers not sent home is growing by 6,000 each year.

The Home Office claims some cannot be sent home on human rights grounds because their home countries are too dangerous. But insiders insist that in most cases the Border and Immigration Agency’s lack of resources is to blame.

Across the country 1,500 immigration officers are tasked with catching and deporting the backlog of illegal immigrants, estimated at more than 600,000.

And thousands of those who are caught have to be released almost immediately because there is nowhere to lock them up.

John Tincey, of the Immigration Services Union, said: “The ‘harm agenda’ (the Home Office system for gauging how harmful it is for an illegal immigrant to stay in the country) gives directors a basis for concentrating on one area but not another.

“Immigration officers used to be allowed to weigh up tasks based on their experience and judgment. Now we have a series of targets to hit and boxes to tick.”



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