One-third of asylum claims come from illegal immigrants or visa overstayers
Posted by admin978 on August 15, 2016 · Leave a Comment
The Home Office has officially admitted that one-third of all claims for political asylum are made by illegal immigrants or those who have stayed in the UK beyond their legal visa limit.
Rather than applying for asylum at the earliest opportunity – as one would expect from a genuine refugee – these people only raise the question of asylum when they have been apprehended by immigration officers, often while working illegally.
During the decade from 2004 to 2014, 231,100 asylum applications were received: of these, 83,912 were from people who had been apprehended by immigration staff, either as illegal entrants or as overstayers.
Surprisingly, almost one-quarter of these were nevertheless granted either asylum or an extended leave to remain.
Even Labour MP Keith Vaz, chairman of the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, admitted to The Times:
“The very principle of seeking asylum is that you feel persecuted at the time you arrive, not saying you feel persecuted after arriving illegally or for different reasons and then remaining in the country until you are apprehended.”
Official figures for 2015-2016 show that the largest number of UK entry visas granted during 2015-2016 were to visitors from China and India/Pakistan. There were 92,715 visas granted to Chinese visitors, and 92,327 to India and Pakistan combined. While there would be many legitimate Chinese tourists, students or business visitors among their total (which was a 22% increase on the previous year), one wonders about the 14,231 visas granted to Nigerians (though this was a 25% decrease on the previous year, partly because of a crackdown on illegals).
By contrast far smaller numbers of visas (whether for tourism, study or work) were granted to travellers from White countries: 21,605 to Australians; 34,276 to visitors from the USA;
In 2014 an undercover BBC investigation revealed widespread abuse of the student visa system.
