Immigration Applications

Lord Bishop of St Albans Excerpts

Wednesday 16th May 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I will refer to the cases that the noble Baroness asked about—63 people who may have been wrongly deported. As the Home Secretary said, the department has been checking records back to 2002, some 16 years ago, when electronic records began, looking at all removals and deportations of Caribbean nationals aged 45-plus. So far, 63 cases have been identified where Caribbean individuals could have entered the UK before 1973. This means that, of the 8,000 total deportation and administrative removal records that came up, so far there is a focus on 63 because something in their record indicates that they could have entered before 1973. Of those, there are 32 foreign national offenders and 31 administrative removals. So it does not mean that 63 people have been wrongfully removed or deported; it is the number of cases that merit further investigation. But I thank the noble Baroness for bringing that point up.

[The Lord Bishop of St Albans]

My Lords, there has been much discussion about targets for the number of removals over the past few weeks, which we are all aware of. As the average length of time that these appeals are taking is increasing, is it not the case that we need some targets to reduce the length of time, because people are being left in limbo with their lives on hold as these are going through?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

The right reverend Prelate is absolutely right to point out what we are endeavouring to do, which is to reduce the amount of time that people spend in limbo, to use a Christian term, while their appeals are heard or indeed while their cases are heard. I thank him for making that point. It is what we are endeavouring to do.