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Home Affairs Committee report on immigration and asylum: government response
02 June 2011
Immigration Minister Damian Green has responded to a report by the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee on the work of the UK Border Agency.
In response to the report's comments about the asylum system, Damian Green said:
'We have known for some time that the asylum system we inherited was chaotic.
'Some of these cases date back more than a decade and the UK Border Agency was always clear that, because of the length of time many of these individuals have been in the country, there would be no alternative to granting them leave to remain. There is no amnesty.'
Responding to the report's observations on the immigration system in general, he added:
'We are already radically reforming the points-based system and other routes of entry that have been subject to widespread abuse, and will re-introduce exit checks by 2015.
'We are making greater use of intelligence to remove people with no right to be here and are concluding individual cases faster.'