UK Immigration News

The UK's Home Office has released research which shows that 50% of the population of England and Wales (but not Scotland) lives in 'areas of relatively high migration'. A further 30% lives in areas of 'moderate migration' and only 20% lives in areas with 'low migration levels'. The report was commissioned by the Home Office to try to discover what the impacts of immigration have been in England and Wales. It was published on 3rd July 2013.

The UK's Home Office has been criticised for a tweet that was posted on a social networking website. The Home Office Twitter feed featured a tweet which promised that 'there will be no hiding place for illegal immigrants'.

The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has backed a plan to give an amnesty to illegal immigrants who have been in the UK for twelve years or more. Mr Johnson was speaking on London news radio station LBC Radio on Tuesday 2nd July 2013 on his new Ask Boris show.

Mr Johnson was asked by co-presenter Nick Ferrari whether he supported an amnesty for all illegal immigrants. He said that, in fact, the UK already has an effective amnesty for people who have been in the country illegally for twelve years. He asked 'why not be honest about it?'

The UK's chief inspector of immigration, John Vine, has issued a final damning report into the workings of the UK Border Agency (UKBA) which was abolished in March 2013. He found that, while there had been improvements in the organisation's systems for finding asylum seekers in its final months, it continued to ignore important data right up until the end.

An MP says that a future Conservative government of the UK should offer an amnesty to the estimated 570,000 illegal immigrants in the country and grant them all indefinite leave to remain. Nadhim Zahawi, himself an immigrant, says that this move would be likely to gain the Conservative party votes among ethnic minority voters.

One of the UK's most senior civil servants, Mark Sedwill, gave evidence to an influential committee of MPs this month about the future of the UK's immigration services. Mr Sedwill told the Home Affairs Committee that the Home Office faces a cut in its budget and that immigration staff would as a result be made redundant. The cuts will be made in 2015.