From "regrettable" to "intolerable"
01 September 1993
In a report on delays in the Home Office Immigration and Nationality Department (IND) the Home Affairs Committee finds some improvement from the position at the end of the eighties, but slams the delays of almost two years in dealing with naturalisation applications as "intolerable and morally wrong". The nine months which applicants in the Indian sub-continent have to wait between applying for permission to come to Britain and their first interview is characterised as "unacceptable", while the 18 months taken to process asylum applications is merely regrettable . The committee is "concerned about the possible hardship" arising from the six-week delay sometimes experienced by asylum applicants in obtaining a Standard Acknowledgment Letter (SAL) - an identity card with photograph and details without which applicants cannot obtain benefits.
The report indicates that there have been improvements in efficiency since the Information Technology Division (B7) was set up in April 1990. Systems put into place since then include the B4 Nationality system, the INDECS system, which deals with landing and embarkation records, the Refugee index, the Port Administration System and the Suspect Index. In addition, a Screening Unit was set up in November 1991 for identification of asylum-seekers. Fingerprints of all asylum-seekers are now being added to their records.
But the committee expresses its concern over the "apparently arbitrary way in which exceptional leave to remain is granted" and recommends that staff in the Asylum Division of the Home Office have adequate time for training and use to the full the essential help of organisations such as Amnesty International and Africa Watch. It is also concerned that asylum-seekers wait up to five years before being granted exceptional leave to remain, and then have to wait a further four years to bring their families to Britain. This is "unacceptable" and the committee recommends a review of the procedure. Indeed, it comments that "delays in the asylum division and appeals process ... may give rise to the suspicion that delay is a means of control".
Delays in the IND: Report, proceedings, minutes of evidence and appendices, HC Home Affairs Committee, Session 1992-93, 2nd report, No 320, 15.2.1993.