WRITTEN ON April 28th, 2006 BY Richard S AND STORED IN Uncategorized

Some aspects of modern Britain are seldom reported by the media, leaving most of us to live in blissful ignorance unless we experience them first-hand: I’ve just experienced again the horror and chaos of an Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (AIT).

Why haven’t intrepid reporters publicised what is being done in our name?

This AIT building, just one of several special court buildings, was full of desperate people with desperate, tragic stories. Long corridors led to the many courtrooms holding simultaneous hearings. People hunted anxiously for relatives, peering into courtrooms, awaiting for their fate…

Anything to do with immigration invokes strong views and emotions, but the system is clearly not working properly and appears neither fair nor humane. At a time when Britain badly needs friends around the world to help against terrorism, our immigration system is creating widespread disgust and creating enemies.

My friend’s case was very straight forward: The British High Commission overseas should have received the application, followed a simple, quick, routine process and issued the temporary visa.

However, they promptly lost important original supporting documents; staged a hostile, misleading interview; and then, presumable still without the correct papers, declined the appeal.

The papers were then sent to the UK, losing more documents, and muddling them with a completely unrelated case from a different country. The case was further delayed by the large backlog; processed by poorly trained temporary staff; and affected by the resignation of the minister.

At any stage, any competent review of the file should have highlighted these errors.

Eventually the case reached the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (AIT): Without notice or explanation, the Home Office failed to attend the court or supply the correct papers: The judge decided to adjourn the case. (Our time and expenses were wasted.)

This time, the Home Office attended, but the judge and the Home Office representative were each missing papers: different papers. After much frantic photocopying, we provided duplicate documents and the case was then quickly decided.

Ours was a simple case which should never have got this far. Most other cases in this AIT building’s many courtrooms were far more serious, involving potential deportations, splitting of families, fracturing of lives. However, those we heard seemed to suffer the same problems: Missing documents; official muddle and confusion; desperate people lost in a hopeless system. Most cases also supported the “industry” of specialist advisers, lawyers, barristers and interpreters. Staff morale was very, very low; opinions about senior government politicians were unprintable.

The WIBBIs:

1. Britain needs to see itself as foreigners see it; Improve its behaviour and repair its image.
2. The horror of this ghastly current system should be openly and widely reported, to force rapid improvement.
3. We need a calm, honest public debate about each separate aspect of migration and immigration policy, covering all types of temporary visitors and long-term residents.
4. As it relies so much on documentary “evidence,” the Immigration Service should consider using electronic document management, possibly the same as the apparently successful Criminal Justice IT system.
5. There should be a simplified process to determine simple cases which does not need expensive barristers or high-powered judges.

The current system is far from Ideal, but little is being done to improve it.