The
Independent
London, Wednesday, March 31, 2004Home Office told
of immigration scam 18 months ago, claims Davis
By Nigel Morris, Home Affairs Correspondent THE turmoil over immigration
policy deepened last night after it emerged that
the Home Office was warned 18 months ago about an
"organised scam" to spirit bogus workers into
Britain. The disclosure, in a fresh set of leaked
documents to Conservatives, intensified the
political pressure on David Blunkett, the
Home Secretary, hours after he suspended all
immigration applications from Bulgaria and
Romania.  David
Irving comments: NONE SO blind as those
that won't see, continued
What a madhouse. If
Adolf Hitler were still in power
today, he would only have to Blacken the
faces of his elite division troops and
they would be invited in by Britain's
Labour government and given Social
Security handouts on arrival. Invasion
would be unnecessary.
See my comments already in yesterday's
AR-Online. |
Mr Blunkett was forced for the second time in
two days to issue a robust defence of the
Immigration minister, Beverley Hughes, who
has faced repeated demands for her resignation. The latest came when James Cameron, a
British diplomat in Romania, was suspended after
claiming visa applications were waved through
indiscriminately by immigration officials. The Home Office was thrown further on to the
defensive by fresh accusations yesterday about the
lax checks on migrants from Romania and Bulgaria
and claims that ministers must have been aware of
the problems in handling immigration applications
from those two countries. David Davis, the shadow Home Secretary,
produced a letter from John Ramsden, a
senior Foreign Office official, to Chris
Mace, deputy director general of the
Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) at
the Home Office. Sent on 5 November 2002, six months after Ms
Hughes became Immigration minister, he reported
that the British embassy in the Bulgarian capital,
Sofia, had alerted him to "an organised scam that
completely undermines our entry control procedures
-- and indeed makes a bit of a nonsense of having a
visa regime". About 70 Bulgarians had
submitted applications, under the European
Communities Association Agreements (ECAA) scheme
to allow people from countries about to join the
EU, to set up businesses in Britain. Each had
produced virtually identical business plans and
some admitted the plans were written by
solicitors who were charging [... ] for
a "guaranteed" UK visa. Mr Ramsden wrote: "The applicants rarely know
what is in their business plan, cannot speak
English, and have absolutely no knowledge or
experience in the type of skills needed for
respective businesses." He complained that applications -- even from
people previously caught submitting forged
documents -- were being approved by IND staff in
Britain against the embassy's "strongest
recommendations". The Tories released details of several farcical
applications that were approved. They included a
one-legged man given permission to be a roof tiler
and a man who had lost several fingers who
successfully applied to work as an electrician. In a second letter to IND headquarters, sent by
a vice-consul in Sofia on 20 October, it was warned
about Bulgarians travelling to Britain ostensibly
on holiday then applying for ECAA status in this
country. Of a party of 48 organised by one tour
group, a total of 37 failed to return to Bulgaria.
"If this does not demonstrate the enormity of the
problem (this is just one agency of about 40 we
have on a suspect list) and that something should
be done about the ECAA problem sooner rather than
later, I don't know what would," wrote G
McCall. Mr Davis said: "Beverley Hughes can no longer
claim that senior officials in her department were
unaware of these allegations. More and more
revelations illustrate the extent of the chaos,
confusion and mismanagement." Ministers refused to be drawn on whether they
were made aware 18 months ago of the problems over
the issuing of ECAA status, insisting that question
would be covered by a fresh inquiry announced
yesterday. It will be conducted by Ken
Sutton, a senior IND official, who has already
investigated claims that immigration applications
from East Europeans were secretly fast-tracked at
the IND's office in Sheffield. In heated scenes at the Commons, Mr Davis
claimed immigration controls had "effectively
collapsed" under Labour. He said civil servants had
repeatedly warned ministers about the
rubber-stamping of bogus applications from East
European countries but, instead of the rules being
tightened, they had become weaker. Mr Davis said:
"Somebody should shoulder responsibility for this
disaster." Ms Hughes hit back in a combative performance,
saying: "I'm neither incompetent nor dishonest and
I intend to carry on doing my job as long as the
Prime Minister and Home Secretary want me to do
so." Mr Blunkett said: "She has our unequivocal
backing." - EU justice and interior ministers last night
agreed the first pan-European set of rules on
asylum, which the UK says will reduce the flow
of refugees into Britain. The plans have
provoked opposition from civil rights groups,
who say they could violate international law and
endanger the lives of refugees.
'There was much
more opportunity in Britain' Angel Tchourkin, 32, is a business analyst and
researcher for "Bulgarian London" website, He came
to work in Britain in 1996 "I was working back home in a bank but it was a
stagnant time for the Bulgarian economy, with not
much opportunity. I thought there was more
opportunity in Britain so I did a language course
and got an ECAA [European Communities
Association Agreement system]. This e-mail,
which was kept for three weeks, seems to me to be
slander and nothing else. I feel the whole issue is
quite opaque with a political stance. There has
been a lot of anti-immigration feeling over the
past two years. Most people who come here on an
ECAA are self-employed as cleaners or taxi drivers,
they do not come to claim benefits but to work. In
my case, if I cannot find work, I am not entitled
to claiming benefits. I have to pay for everything.
Some people have to wait up to a year and a half to
join their spouses or the rest of their families in
Britain. This will just make their separation even
longer. Many Bulgarians I have spoken to are quite
distressed by the news. A lot of people, especially
families, have waited for four or five months and
thought they would get their visa any moment, but
are now left in limbo. The whole procedure is a
long one and this makes the waiting even longer.
People normally pay for a lawyer to carry out the
process and most use money they have borrowed from
banks or friends. I imagine a lot of people in
Bulgaria are going to be angry after having spent a
lot of money, to be told that the process has been
suspended. "
Arifa Akbar THE ACCUSATIONS Claim: Checks on thousands of East Europeans
were waived to massage the immigration figures. (7
March) - Response: Beverley Hughes, the Immigration
minister, admitted that had happened at the
Sheffield office of the Immigration and
Nationality Directorate (IND) but said it was
without ministers' knowledge. She was vindicated
by an inquiry.
Claim: A fast-track process was introduced at
the IND's Liverpool office for thousands applying
for citizenship to make it easier for them to
receive passports (16 March). - Response: Ms Hughes authorised a "change in
the approved process" for handling such claims
to clear a backlog. The Home Office insisted it
was not a relaxation of the rules.
Claim: Checks on all immigrants waiting more
than three months for their applications to be
approved were relaxed (28 March). - Response: Policy emerged in leaked memo from
two officials at the IND's headquarters. The
Home Office confirmed authenticity and that Ms
Hughes was aware of it but said it was
consistent with efforts to reduce backlogs under
Tory governments.
Claim: Romanians and Bulgarians were routinely
allowed to enter Britain to work with forged
documents (29 March). - Response: Claim emerged in leaked memo from
James Cameron, consul at British embassy at
Bucharest. Applications from Romania and
Bulgaria were suspended.
Claim: The Home Office was informed 18 months
ago of details of scams to smuggle in bogus workers
from Romania and Bulgaria (yesterday). - Response: Leaked documents suggest worries
were conveyed in 2002 to the IND. The Home
Office refused to say whether ministers were
told.
© Independent
Digital (UK) Ltd
March 31, 2004 Blunkett halts
visa applications in immigration scam claims
By Greg Hurst, Political Correspondent, and
Richard Ford, Home Correspondent DAVID BLUNKETT halted all visa applications
yesterday from Bulgarians and Romanians wanting to
enter Britain after allegations of an organised
immigration scam. The Home Secretary said two
senior officials had failed to heed warnings from
embassy staff that migrants were using forged
papers to gain entry to work in Britain. Letters leaked to the Conservatives revealed
that the Immigration and Nationality Directorate
had been warned of the scam 18 months ago. One document disclosed that applicants seeking
to enter Britain as self-employed businessmen
included a one-legged roof tiler, an electrician
who had lost his fingers in an electrical accident
and builders who knew nothing about bricks or
mortar. Other documents disclosed that migrants
were being given visas despite advice from embassy
officials that they did not fulfil entry
requirements. A Foreign Office official said boxes of
applications showed that "this has developed into
an organised scam that completely undermines our
entry control procedures". Mr Blunkett rounded on
officials and said action should have been taken
over the warnings that alleged "gross
illegality". All immigration applications from Bulgaria and
Romania were immediately suspended as the Home
Office attempted to deal with the political fallout
from damaging allegations about the waiving of
immigration controls. An earlier inquiry into the unauthorised easing
of checks from other East European states was
reopened to investigate the latest allegations. The latest leaks were disclosed to MPs by David
Davis the Shadow Home Secretary. He flourished a
letter from John Ramsden, a Foreign Office
official, complaining that warnings from embassy
staff in the Bulgarian capital Sofia about blatant
flaws were being ignored by officials in Britain.
Embassy staff were "demoralised" by actions which
"completely undermine our entry control
procedures", he said. Another document from the embassy in Sofia
highlighted accusation against a tour company which
arranged for 64 people to visit on tourist visas of
whom 37, once in Britain, applied to stay and
work. Mr Davis said: "Civil servants are being
instructed to do things which they believe are
improper or even illegal. And what is clear from
what they say . . . is that this collapse has
happened over the last two to three years." Downing Street officials were unable to say
whether Beverley Hughes, the Immigration Minister,
had been alerted about the complaints when they
were made in the autumn of 2002. Mr Blunkett, responding in a Conservative debate
on the claims, told the Commons that his officials
should have dealt with the complaints. "Some of us
do believe, and that includes (Beverley Hughes) and
myself, that if material is placed in front of
senior management, they should act on it," he
said. "It does not take a great deal of intelligence
to believe that if someone alleges fraud, that
documents are forged, that people are using false
papers, that they have got an immigration history,
that should rule them out." The Home Secretary mounted a strong defence of
Ms Hughes, who also won strong backing from all
parts of the parliamentary party. She told MPs that
her conscience was clear: "I would not be
interested in hanging on to office if I knew in my
own mind I had a personal case to answer." Among the leaked documents are letters showing
that migrants from Bulgaria and Romania were
allowed to come to Britain to set up businesses
even though some could speak no English, had few
skills and lacked cash. Among those allowed in was a failed
asylum-seeker who had failed to turn up for her
removal. She was given a visa allowing her to set
up a business. A mechanic who had only worked on
ageing Dacia vehicles was given a visa despite
embassy staff advising that he should
not. Copyright 2004 Times
Newspapers Ltd. 
Whistleblower
suspended in Britain's immigrant row: Minister
faces calls to quit over 'lax' entry checks from
new Europe | and David Irving's
commentary-
British
immigration minister Beverley Hughes lied: she
did personally authorise opening gates to tens
of thousands of immigrants
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write to David
Irving