‘Right to family life’ loophole for asylum seekers

Thousands of asylum seekers have been awarded British residency under a human rights law that allows foreigners to stay because they have a partner or children in the country, even in cases where the individual has committed serious crimes, a source from the UK Border Agency (UKBA) has claimed.

Details emerged last week following the publication of the Home Affairs Select Committee’s report on the UKBA’s work, about a ruling under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) which meant that a significant number of asylum seekers were able to remain in the country as the law guarantees the “right to family life”.

The report found that 161,000 individuals have been given leave to remain in the UK, some of whom argued their case using the ECHR. Critics say the delay in processing cases has allowed many asylum seekers the time to find partners and have children.

An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph reported a senior UKBA official claiming that officials generally decided not to refuse applications where the asylum seeker had a case under Article 8, regardless of how weak the other aspects of their claim might be.

An insider from the agency said it is difficult to remove some individuals from the UK because they end up being in the country for so long it becomes unlawful to remove them. The source added that if the agency went to court, there was a good chance it would lose and an appeal would simply end up costing too much money.

The Home Office submitted a briefing document to the select committee as part of the report compilation which revealed that criminals were among those who won the right to stay under Article 8.

The document added that every case is judged on its own merits and in some cases the strength of the Article 8 claim will outweigh that of the public interest in deportation.

Gerry Sutcliffe, Shadow Home Office Minister, said: “These are very serious allegations from within the UKBA. People want to know that immigration rules are being properly enforced and the scale of chaos and cuts in the borders agency are putting that at risk. This government has promised to cut net migration to the tens of thousands by 2015, yet we still don’t know whether this remains agreed government policy and they have no workable plans to achieve this pledge.”

However, a Home Office spokesperson said that some of the cases dated back more than a decade and the UKBA was always clear that because of the length of time many of these individuals have been in the country, there would be no alternative to granting them leave to remain.