30. Memorandum submitted by
UKvisas
TACKLING ABUSE
OF THE
VISA-ISSUING
OPERATION
UKvisas takes an active role in tackling abuse
of the visa-issuing operation. Areas to be covered in this session:
1. Delivering of intelligence-led decision-making
through the establishment of Risk Assessment Units (RAUs) based
overseas— UKvisas needs to deliver both good
service to our customers and effective control, as part of the
wide effort to reduce unfounded asylum numbers, organised crime
and illegal immigration, and to combat terrorism. Intelligence-led
decision-making is set against a backdrop of rising operational
business demand—visa application figures in 2004-05 approached
2.5 million. Although growth has slowed following July 2005, growth
rate in recent years has been 14%, with over 40 posts seeing a
more than 20% increase.
— Our overall visa grant/refusal rate
is 81%-19%. An intelligence-led approach will help us identify
who should be in the 81% at earliest opportunity, with minimal
processing, leaving enough time to consider more problematic applications
fully.
— The Risk Assessment Units (RAUs)
were established, first in Beijing (2002) and Kingston (2003),
as a means of trialling an intelligence-led approach to the UKvisas
operation. Throughout 2005, the network was expanded to a total
of 14 formalised RAUs and two satellites. Further expansion is
now under way to bring the total to approximately 25 RAUs worldwide.
— The main objectives of the RAUs
are: to assess visa applications and procedures and to inform
UKvisas (London) and decision makers at post of risks; to further
enhance the quality of decision making at posts through the provision
of timely and focused additional information from a variety of
sources; to identify and tackle organised visa abuse, with other
government partners where appropriate.
— RAUs achieve their objectives by
conducting annual risk assessments of visa sections and local
processes; making local risk assessments of visa categories to
identify regional abuses/country specific abuses/manipulation
of policies; providing intelligence and information to front-line
ECO/Ms to enrich decision-making and sustainability of decisions
at appeal; providing input into wider UK immigration intelligence
processes and policy formulation.
2. Appointment of attachees to UKvisas' London-based
Control Quality Section from key business partners and IND and
other partnership developments, to enhance information exchanges
— Operating an effective overseas
control depends on integration with the rest of the UK Border
Control. UKvisas has recently secured secondees into the Control
Quality Section in order to join up information systems and share
best practice. Team members from Work Permits UK, IND Intelligence
Service (INDIS) and the Immigration Crime Team of the National
Crime Squad have direct connections with other departments and
systems of work, thus enabling UKvisas to call on a broad knowledge
base.
— At the end of January 2006, a Service
Level Agreement was signed with the National Document and Forgery
Unit (NDFU) for the provision of two attachments. These officers
will provide expertise on technical matters, including enhanced
training in forgery detection at posts, and on country-specific
matters.
— Access to the CID database (the
Home Office Immigration caseworking database) is being piloted
in certain RAUs overseas. UKvisas is working with IND to secure
direct access to CID for all overseas staff. This will enhance
the efficiency and consistency of the decision-making process.
— UKvisas is building close relationships
with the education sector through the Joint Education Taskforce
(JET), where we chair the Visa workstream. This dialogue has enabled
us to share detail about levels of abuse in the visa system, to
discuss ideas for improving the visa service to students, and
to prepare collectively for the practical implications of the
points based system.
— In January 2006 UKvisas hosted a
workshop for student-expert Entry Clearance Officers from the
20 top posts around the world, and representatives form the education
sector, to look at all aspects of the visa system as it affects
students. The ideas and recommendations from that workshop will
be taken forward to help us build a better control against abusive
applicants and a better service for genuine ones.
— To better meet demand and customers'
needs, UKvisas is developing partnerships with commercial companies
to deliver the front end of the visa operation (taking and assisting
with applications, fees, data entry) in a range of countries including
China, South Africa, Russia and Nigeria. This has also allowed
staff to be redirected into other tasks to ensure the integrity
of visa issuing.
— Further commercial partnerships
will be created to ensure that UKvisas continue to provide an
efficient service at all posts in the face of rising demand and
the need to capture biometric data.
3. Development of Biometric data-gathering
(finger-scanning) in East Africa, Sri Lanka, Amsterdam, Vietnam
and the Democratic Republic of Congo
— The Government's five year strategy
for asylum and immigration, entitled "Controlling our
borders: making migration work for Britain," details
our rigorous approach towards preventing those who do not meet
our criteria for entry from reaching the UK. A key element of
this is the fingerprinting of all visa applicants by 2008.
— The UKvisas Biometric Programme
intends to implement systems to capture fingerscans and a photograph
of each Visa applicant by 1 January 2008. It will also provide
a technical solution to match fingerscans to linked databases
and return the information to Post within thirty minutes.
PROGRESS— The
UKvisas Biometric Programme team has established nine pilot operations
covering 11 countries, to prove and test fingerprint matching
systems. The posts involved are: Colombo, Dar es Salaam, Addis
Ababa (covering Ethiopia and Djibouti), Asmara, Kampala (covering
Uganda and Rwanda), Nairobi, Amsterdam, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh
(counted as one pilot operation), and Kinshasa.
— The project is going through the
process of securing IND approval for funding of the £70 million
required to deliver fingerscanning worldwide.
— Work continues with other programmes
to ensure successful sharing of our data with others, for example
Police records. The programme has a stakeholder management strategy
to ensure that links are maintained with other biometric, identity
management and technology programmes across the Home Office and
the FCO.
GLOBAL ROLLOUT— The
programme will begin roll out in the late summer of 2006 on the
basis of greatest business need and business readiness. Roll out
in 2006 is constrained by the matching capability of the Immigration
and Asylum Fingerprint System database (currently 2,500 matches
per day). Provisionally, Western European, African and Near Eastern
posts have been identified as rollout priorities.
— Posts collect two finger scans and
matches against previous asylum and visa applications are confirmed
within 48 hours. When we begin to roll out globally, this time
will reduce to 30 minutes. A trial is currently underway in Nairobi
of ten print scanners, with Hanoi to follow in March 2006.
TOTAL NUMBERS— Applications
submitted at biometrically-enabled posts accounted for 3.44% of
the total number of visa applications in November 2005. 5,933
were lodged at such posts (not including fingerprinting-exempt
categories), out of the global total of 172,588 in November 2005.
— Figures from July 2005 until December
2005 show 8,049 matches against the Immigration Fingerprint Bureau
(IFB) database, from 40,151 applications in these posts (2%).
The majority of these (7,596) were matches against previous visa
applicants.
EUROPEAN ISSUES
AND POLICY— The
Programme is working with EU partners, both within BIODEV2 (the
EU sponsored biometric programme) and also bilaterally on projects
with French and Slovenian colleagues. We are discussing the use
of Joint Enrolment Centres and having access to the Schengen Visa
Information System (VIS). It is expected that a trial co-operation
will start in the late summer 2006.
4. Development of analytical skills to support
all areas of UKvisas' business
— UKvisas is recruiting a senior analyst
to establish and lead an analytical team and work programme. This
team will ensure that Risk Assessment Units are contributing fully
to the intelligence picture on immigration abuse and that data
is properly utilised to achieve effective results.
— Work will include: the analysis
and processing of data from CID on trends and profiles, risks
and problems, impact of initiatives and policy, impact of events
such as new visa regimes and incidents, compliance, port refusals
and settlement; data collection and inputting; liaison with departments
and agencies to facilitate data and information sharing; the provision
of recommendations for policy/initiative changes; the evaluation
of developing working practices; the establishment of performance
indicators for operational reviews and Risk Assessment Units;
support for the RAUs.
Mandie Campbell
Head, UKvisas
27 February 2006
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