APPENDIX 34
Memorandum submitted by Mr Andrew M Schooler
JP
1. I wish to submit evidence specifically
in respect of the term of reference which reads as follows "What
compassionate factors should be taken into account (eg young children
who have lived in the UK for most of their lives")?
2. I am an Immigration Officer currently
employed at Harwich International Port. I have been an Immigration
Officer for 35 years. I have a particular interest in child welfare
both as a Governor of two local schools and as a Family Court
Chairman in the Essex Magistrates Courts. I have prepared this
memorandum specifically for the Inquiry.
3. I am particularly concerned at the Department's
current aggressive approach to Family Removals and its effect
on young people. It appears that the removal of the Afghan family
to Germany by private charter aircraft at enormous cost to the
public purse which received recent widespread media coverage was
deliberately undertaken to send out a clear message to other asylum
seekers and to make a political point.
4. Additionally, because of the current
obsession with removal targets, Senior Managers in the Home Office
see families with small children as an easy target. Families with
young children cannot easily disappear. Also removal of a family
swells the removal figures as each one counts separately.
5. Yet many of the families currently under
threat of removal have been in the UK for several years. Many
arrived between 1996 and 1999 and now have children who were either
born here or have lived most of their lives here.
6. The reason why there are now so many
family cases awaiting either removal or a decision is that during
the period 1996-2000, the Immigration and Nationality Department
was in a state of crisis and thousands of cases disappeared into
what can only be described as the "Croydon Black Hole".
Only now are many of these cases beginning to receive attention.
7. To give just one example, in the Immigration
Office where I work at Harwich International Port we have a case
of a Turkish man and wife who arrived at the port of Felixstowe
on 24 May 1992 ie over 10 years ago. They have two UK born children
aged eight years and two years respectively. Their case has still
not been decided.
8. In terms of the Children Act, the overriding
principal which is applied by all Agencies is that "the welfare
of the child is paramount". If as the Home Office claims
in all its correspondence that it is intent on "Building
a Safe, Just and Tolerant Society" then due consideration
must be given to families where the children have been born in
the UK or have spent most of their lives here.
9. The long delays in cases reaching the
removal stage are almost entirely the fault of the Home Office.
Where there are such long delays, asylum seekers cannot live in
a vacuum. They put down roots, their children attend local schools
and many become an integral part of the community in which they
live. To simply uproot these families, often to a European Third
Country where they have no understanding of the language, appears
neither just or tolerant.
10. It is my view that, as far the Immigration
and Nationality Department is concerned, Building a Safe, Just
and Tolerant Society currently comes a very poor second to pursuing
removal targets.
11. Should you require any further information,
please do not hesitate to contact me.
October 2002
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