Bureau Recommends: Corruption and chaos in UK Border Agency

A racket in which asylum seekers can buy their confidential immigration files and are offered the chance to ‘fix’ their application so they can stay in the country, has been exposed by an undercover reporter.

The Sunday Times’ reporter, who posed as a friend of an asylum seeker, was provided with internal immigration service documents for just £250, by a middleman.

The reporter also revealed that for up to £8,000, a corrupt immigration official would alter confidential information boosting the claimant’s chances of staying in the country.

The middleman was arrested after the newspaper handed its dossier of evidence over to the police.

An insider in the UK Border Agency also described how the agency has become overwhelmed by the number of foreigners entering the country, and yet at the same time is being strangled by red tape and the pressure of fewer resources.

His damning account details how dangerous asylum seekers are being released into the community, that the new flagship computer system is full of false data and how complicated cases are being abandoned to save time.

Read the full investigation here