5Immigration Enforcement
The Migration Refusal Pool and curtailment of leave
72.Anyone whose temporary or permanent migration application is refused by UK Visas and Immigration or whose leave to remain has expired enters the Migration Refusal Pool (MRP). The MRP was set up in 2008. Asylum applications are excluded from it. It includes people who might have left the UK (but departure has not yet been confirmed) or secured a grant of leave in a different way (and records have not yet been linked to show this). Immigration Enforcement manages the MRP, and this forms a major part of its workload. Cases leave the pool as people are confirmed to have left the UK, are granted leave, or lodge an appeal or new application.
Chart 11: Size of Migration Refusal Pool at end of quarter
Source: Home Office, Immigration enforcement transparency data, February 2016 (and previous data releases), Table Post_MRP_01
73.In September 2012, the Home Office contracted Capita to carry out a data cleansing operation on the Migration Refusal Pool. By the end of Q4 2015, Capita had assessed 460,900 records (122,000 in 2015). Of these, 243,000 had been passed back to the Home Office to progress for further casework, be that removal or confirmation that the individual had applied for another route to remain in the UK. 98,400 had been confirmed as having departed from the UK, and in 99,400 cases no contact could be made.66
Improved performance
- At the end of Q4 2015, there were 161,199 cases in the Migration Refusal Pool (MRP), down 4% from 167,975 in the previous quarter and down 7% from the 173,514 at the end of 2014.
- The pre-2008 cases stood at 223,000 when the MRP was created. To date Capita has assessed 175,500 of the pre-2008 records. By the end of Q4 2015 there were 55,547 records remaining in the pre-2008 Migration Refusal Pool, down from 63,634 at the end of the previous quarter. 67
Chart 12: Number of records in the pre-2008 Migration Refusal Pool
Source: Home Office, Immigration enforcement transparency data, February 2016, Table Pre_MRP_01
74.An inspection of the curtailment process for Tier 4 visas by David Bolt, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI), found that cases were being entered into the Migration Refusal Pool unnecessarily.68 For example, cases in which leave had been curtailed but were still within a period of grace (to ‘wrap up’ their stay and depart) were being entered into the MRP and referred to Capita only for Capita to, correctly, bounce them back to the Home Office because there was a ‘barrier to removal’—namely that the student was still entitled to be in the UK. The ICIBI also found cases being entered into the MRP where Advance Passenger Information (API) showed that the individual had either already departed the UK or never arrived in the first place. As the ICIBI noted, in both cases this was wasted effort for all parties. In its response to his Report the Government agreed that both issues would be, or were being, addressed.69
75.The ICIBI also noted that Immigration Enforcement had no process for monitoring ‘curtailment not pursued’ (CNP) cases—ones which Immigration Enforcement had chosen not to pursue because either the student’s leave had already expired or the student had fewer than 60 days leave remaining at the time of the curtailment consideration, meaning that the Home Office expected these individuals either to have returned home or to have extended their leave in another category. He observed that:
Between 1 April [2014] and 31 March 2015, the Home Office made 71,601 CNP decisions. Many of these individuals may have departed the UK or have been granted leave to remain on other grounds. However, the true position, including the number and whereabouts of those who have remained in the UK illegally, is not known.70
We consider the issue of removing foreign national offenders separately at paragraph 89.
76.The Government has accepted the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration‘s recommendation to take the steps necessary to locate and identify those individuals amongst the more than 71,000 curtailment not pursued (CNP) cases who have remained in the UK illegally, with a view to effecting their removal. As with the process with Older Live Cases we expect statistics on progress in dealing with this issue to be published on a quarterly basis.
Immigration detention
77.Immigration detention is the practice of detaining asylum seekers and other migrants for administrative purposes, to enable their claim to be resolved, or their possible removal. In 2015, 32,446 people entered immigration detention, a 6% increase from 2014. 71
Table 20: Number of people entering immigration detention at the end of each quarter
|
Quarter |
Total |
Male |
Female |
Of whom were children |
|
2014 Q1 |
7,031 |
5,899 |
1,132 |
25 |
|
2014 Q2 |
6,995 |
5,877 |
1,118 |
27 |
|
2014 Q3 |
8,341 |
7,049 |
1,292 |
32 |
|
2014 Q4 |
7,997 |
6,903 |
1,094 |
44 |
|
2015 Q1 |
7,569 |
6,530 |
1,039 |
41 |
|
2015 Q2 |
8,146 |
6,957 |
1,189 |
38 |
|
2015 Q3 |
9,029 |
7,791 |
1,238 |
31 |
|
2015 Q4 |
7,702 |
6,534 |
1,168 |
18 |
Source: Home Office, Immigration Statistics, February 2016, Detention data tables, dt_04q
Chart 13: Total entering detention
Source: Home Office, Immigration Statistics, February 2016, Table dt_05q
78.The proportion of all those who entered detention and who were then removed from the UK has gradually fallen from 63% in Q1 2010 to 44% in Q4 2015. Fewer than half of those people who enter immigration detention are removed from the UK.
Improved performance
- The proportion of all those who entered detention and who were then removed from the UK increased from 40% in Q3 2015 to 44% in Q4 2015.
Table 21: Numbers leaving detention and removed from country
|
Number leaving detention |
Number Removed from the UK |
% Removed from the UK |
|
|
2014 Q1 |
6,864 |
3,985 |
58 |
|
2014 Q2 |
6,876 |
3,855 |
56 |
|
2014 Q3 |
8,039 |
3,957 |
49 |
|
2014 Q4 |
7,895 |
3,876 |
49 |
|
2015 Q1 |
7,516 |
3,760 |
50 |
|
2015 Q2 |
8,178 |
3,966 |
48 |
|
2015 Q3 |
8,892 |
3,565 |
40 |
|
2015 Q4 |
8,603 |
3,795 |
44 |
Source: Home Office, Immigration Statistics, February 2016, Table dt_05q
79.In Q4 2015, it cost on average £91 per day to hold an individual in immigration detention.72 In addition to the cost of detention itself the Home Office also pays compensation to those people whom the courts find to have been held in detention unlawfully. A Freedom of Information request revealed that a total of £18 million has been paid in compensation over the last four years.
Table 22: Total paid in compensation to those unlawfully detained
|
Financial year |
Total paid in compensation |
|
2011–12 |
£4,461,344 |
|
2012–13 |
£5,017,971 |
|
2013–14 |
£4,775,000 |
|
2014–15 |
£4,000,000 |
Source: BBC News, Payments to wrongly held detainees top £4bn each year, 20 April 2016
Overall, the number of people in immigration detention has dropped from 3,460 at the end of 2014 to 2,607 by the end of 2015.
Table 23: Number of people in immigration detention at the end of the year
|
Total |
Male |
Female |
|
|
2010 |
2,525 |
2,248 |
277 |
|
2011 |
2,419 |
2,178 |
241 |
|
2012 |
2,685 |
2,412 |
273 |
|
2013 |
2,796 |
2,505 |
291 |
|
2014 |
3,462 |
3,135 |
327 |
|
2015 |
2,607 |
2,337 |
270 |
Source: Home Office, Immigration Statistics, February 2016, Table DT_13
The UK is the only country in Europe without a time limit on detention. Of those in detention at the end of 2015, 1,635 individuals had been in detention for over 28 days, 81 people for over a year and 8 people for longer than two years. Current trends suggest that over half of these people will be released (see Table 21).
Table 24: People in detention by length of detention
|
Length of detention |
End of 2013 |
End of 2014 |
End of 2015 |
|
3 days or less |
115 |
157 |
120 |
|
4 to 7 days |
74 |
52 |
48 |
|
8 to 14 days |
326 |
333 |
241 |
|
15 to 28 days |
521 |
622 |
533 |
|
29 days to less than 2 months |
767 |
795 |
652 |
|
2 months to less than 3 months |
350 |
479 |
319 |
|
3 months to less than 4 months |
243 |
399 |
211 |
|
4 months to less than 6 months |
180 |
228 |
190 |
|
6 months to less than 12 months |
145 |
289 |
174 |
|
12 months to less than 18 months |
37 |
65 |
55 |
|
18 months to less than 24 months |
22 |
25 |
26 |
|
24 months to less than 36 months |
13 |
12 |
6 |
|
36 months to less than 48 months |
3 |
4 |
2 |
|
48 months or more |
0 |
2 |
0 |
|
Total |
2,796 |
3,462 |
2,607 |
Source: Home Office, Immigration Statistics, February 2016, Table DT_11_q
80.Immigration detention is costly, as is the compensation which has to be paid when detention is found to be unlawful. The adverse effects of detention on an individual’s mental health are also well-established. We support the recommendations of the independent reviewer, Stephen Shaw, that the Home Office should both do more to reduce the length of time that detainees are held and investigate alternatives to detention. Particular attention should be paid to those who are held in detention for the longest periods. We welcome the Government’s commitment to an independent case review after three months’ detention, and the new statutory automatic presumption of bail after four months’ detention. We will closely scrutinise the impact of these changes. We recommend that the Government publish a timetable for implementation, as well as a date for Stephen Shaw’s short follow-up review. We share Stephen Shaw’s view that further legal interventions, such as a statutory time limit on detention, will need to be considered if there has not been a significant impact on the length of detention.
Children in detention
81.The Government has committed to end the detention of children for immigration purposes. Although the number of children so detained has significantly reduced from a high of 1,119 children in 2009, the practice has not stopped entirely. In 2015, 128 children entered immigration detention.
Chart 14: Children entering detention by age
Source: Home Office, Immigration Statistics, February 2016, Table DT_02
82.The graph below shows how long children were detained. The graph provides data for children detained longer than three days. In 2015, 95 children were detained for less than three days. At the end of 2015 there were no children in immigration detention.
Chart 15: Children leaving immigration detention by length held, those over 3 days
Improved performance
- We welcome the fact that there were no children held in immigration detention in Q4 2015 for longer than 3 days, down from 14 in Q3 2015.73
Pregnant women in detention
83.In February 2015, the Home Secretary asked Stephen Shaw, a former Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, to conduct a review of the welfare of vulnerable people in detention. Stephen Shaw submitted his review in September 2015 and it was published by the Home Office in January 2016. The review included a list of categories of people who should be presumed unsuitable for detention, such as those suffering serious mental illness, and an absolute exclusion from detention for pregnant women. When the Minister for Immigration came before us in February 2016 he was unable to provide an assurance that the Home Office would accept Mr Shaw’s recommendation on excluding pregnant women from detention.
84.On 18 April 2016 the Government announced that, although it would retain the right to detain pregnant women, it planned to end their routine detention and detention would be limited to 72 hours, extendable to up to a week with Ministerial authorisation. The Government offers the following explanation for not fully meeting Stephen Shaw’s recommendation:
We need to ensure that we are able to effectively manage returns for those who do not depart voluntarily. This new safeguard will ensure that detention for pregnant women will be used as a last resort and for very short periods—for example: immediately prior to a managed return; to prevent illegal entry at the border where a return can be arranged quickly, or if a pregnant woman presents a public risk.74
85.The Government’s decision to move some way towards the recommendation in the Shaw review to end the detention of pregnant women is welcome. However, it falls short of the absolute exclusion recommended by Stephen Shaw. We expect any future instances of pregnant women being detained to be a last resort; and the occurrences and length and circumstances of detention must be recorded in future data releases so that we can properly assess whether the new safeguards are being adhered to in practice.
Rule 35 reports
86.Rule 35 of the Detention Centre Rules is intended to be a key safeguard in ensuring that vulnerability in detention is identified. It states that medical practitioners are required to report to the Home Office any detainee whose health is likely to be injuriously affected by detention, and any detainee they are concerned may be a victim of torture. The chart below shows the number of Rule 35 Reports made to the Department since the beginning of 2012 and the number of people released from detention as a result.
Chart 16: Rule 35 reports
Table 25: People released as a result of Rule 35 reports
|
Rule 35 Reports made |
People released as a result of Rule 35 Reports |
||
|
2012 |
1,179 |
93 |
8% |
|
2013 |
1,679 |
146 |
9% |
|
2014 |
1,671 |
206 |
12% |
|
2015 |
2,038 |
430 |
21% |
Source: Home Office Immigration Enforcement Transparency Data, Table DT_03
87.There were substantially more Rule 35 Reports in 2015 than in previous years. The number and proportion of people released as a result of a Rule 35 Report has also increased from 12% (93) in 2012 to 21% (430) in 2015.
Improved performance
- In Q4 2015, 28% of Rule 35 reports resulted in release from detention, an increase from 20% in Q3 2015.
88.We welcome the increase in the number of people who are considered unfit for detention being released. However, it is disappointing that a large majority of detainees subject to Rule 35 Reports remain in detention. Stephen Shaw’s independent review observed that such a high level of rejection showed that the system designed to safeguard the welfare of vulnerable people was failing and recommended that an alternative be immediately considered. The Government has committed to addressing this with a new ‘adult at risk’ policy. We look forward to seeing the details of the new policy, but in the meantime the Government must do more to provide protection for vulnerable people, including seeking alternatives to detention.
Foreign national offenders (FNOs)
89.The Government has said it wishes to deport as many Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) as possible to their home countries. In 2013, the Government produced an Action Plan on FNOs with the aims of increasing removals from 4,600 to 5,600 a year over the following three years, and reducing the number of FNOs in the UK by 2,000 over the same period. In 2015, provisional data show that 5,602 FNOs were removed, a 6% increase on the previous year (5,286). This number has been steadily increasing since the year ending March 2013 (4,720) and is now the highest number since the series began in 2009.75 The data also shows:
- In Q4 2015 there were 9,895 foreign nationals held in prisons and Immigration Removal Centres (down from 10,695 in Q4 2013)
- In Q4 2015, 416 FNOs eligible for deportation were released into the community, down from 429 in Q3 (when it was the highest it has been since the beginning of 2012). Of these, 396 remained to be deported at the end of the quarter.76
Improved performance
- It took an average of 149 days to deport an FNO in Q4 2015, down from 169 days in Q3 2015.77
Worse performance
- In Q4 2015, there were 5,789 FNOs living in the community. This is the highest number of FNOs living in the community since 2012. 56% had been living in the community for more than two years (see chart below).
Chart 17: Ex-FNOs living in the community by time since release
Source: UK Visas and Immigration, Asylum transparency data, February 2016
90.In evidence to the Liaison Committee in May the Prime Minister accepted that the Government should have done better at removing foreign national prisoners and offenders. The Prime Minister explained that he has “six-monthly National Security Council meetings on foreign national offenders and foreign national prisoners to try to speed up their exit from the UK. It is fantastically difficult, even when you have signed prisoner transfer agreements.”78 Common barriers to deportation include a lack of travel documentation, asylum claims, and further legal representation.
91.The Committee agrees with the Prime Minister that the Government ‘should have done better’ in deporting foreign national offenders from EU countries. The failure to remove these individuals from the UK has been disappointing, and undermines confidence in the immigration system. Whilst there has been a slight improvement in the numbers being deported per year, progress has been too slow and the number of foreign national offenders currently in the United Kingdom is over 13,000, the size of a small town. The Home Office must set out the practical steps it intends to take to significantly reduce this figure. If it fails to do so we will begin setting targets to be monitored in future reports.
92.It is deeply concerning that there are 5,789 FNOs living in the community, the highest number since 2012. Over half of these have been living in the community for more than two years. This is unacceptable, and the Government should set out how many individuals are in the community whom they have decided to keep in the UK, and how many they would seek to deport.
93.There are too many Foreign National Offenders from European Union countries still in the United Kingdom. The public is entitled to expect a more efficient process for prisoner transfers and removals between Member States. It is surprising that of the predominant foreign nationalities in UK prisons, the top three are from EU countries: 983 from Poland, 764 from Ireland, and 635 from Romania. The Home Office has failed to tackle this issue sufficiently, as EU prisoners should be the first to be removed and accepted by their countries of origin. In her evidence to the Committee, the Home Secretary was unconvincing in suggesting that remaining a member of the EU will make it easier to remove these individuals from the UK. The clear inefficiencies demonstrated by this process will lead the public to question the point of the UK remaining a member of the EU.
Voluntary removals
94.Immigration Enforcement run a Voluntary Removal Service to facilitate removals from the UK for people who wish to find a way back to their country of birth. They offer surgeries in religious centres where people can seek advice without fear of being arrested.
95.In response to this Report we request that the Home Office provides an update on the Voluntary Removal Service operated by Immigration Enforcement.
66 Home Office, Immigration enforcement transparency data, February 2016, Post MRP_03
67 Home Office, Immigration enforcement transparency data, February 2016, Table Post MRP_03
68 Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, A Short Notice Inspection of the Tier 4 Curtailment Process July – September 2015, 23 March 2016
69 Home Office, Response to the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Inspection, A short notice inspection of the Tier 4 curtailment process: July – September 2015, published 23 March 2016
70 Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, A Short Notice Inspection of the Tier 4 Curtailment Process July – September 2015, 23 March 2016
71 Home Office, Immigration Statistics, February 2016, Table DT_04q
72 Home Office, Immigration Statistics, February 2016, Table DT_02
73 Home Office, Immigration statistics, February 2016, Table DT_09q
75 Home Office, Migration statistics, February 2016, Table RV_07_q
76 UK Visas and Immigration, Immigration enforcement data, February 2016, Table FNO_03
77 UK Visas and Immigration, Immigration enforcement data, February 2016, FNO_10
78 Oral evidence taken by the Liaison Committee, HC (2015–16) 956, Q66
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27 May 2016