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Home Office rebuttal of weekend newspaper reports
09 November 2009
The Home Office has issued a rebuttal of weekend newspaper reports claiming insufficient consideration of 337,000 visa applications made in the early 2000s (prior to the formation of the UK Border Agency). The press based their stories on a Freedom of Information request.
A Home Office spokesperson said:
'This article is seriously misleading in relation to the events and figures, the facts of which are a matter of public record in the Sutton report of 25 March 2004. We have never had an 'open door' policy on immigration. Our border is now one of the toughest in the world and we are determined to strengthen it. We have rigorous controls in place, including fingerprint checks, to ensure that individuals who are of concern on security grounds will not be granted visas to come to the UK or be granted asylum.'
The applications were the subject of a full inquiry by Ken Sutton in 2004.The Home Office accepted that report in full and implemented all of the recommendations made. The report can be accessed online and has been there since 2004.