Immigration Service

EDM number 974 in 2012-13, proposed by George Galloway on 24/01/2013.
Categorised under the topics of Immigration and Marriage.

That this House notes that a backlog of 16,000 immigration cases has been discovered by inspectors, some of them dating back 10 years, many involving applications for spouse visas; condemns the Minister for Immigration's claim that this is merely a customer service issue and the Minister's attempt to blame the applicants for this hugely embarrassing backlog; further notes that 54 per cent of cases involving spouse visa applications which are appealed have the appeal upheld and the decision to refuse overturned; believesthat British citizens with a right to have their spouses come to this country, and others also with a right to come to this country, have had their rights abused by this excessive delay in the handling of their cases; urges a change of view on the part of the Government so that applicants for spouse and other visas are not presumed to be attempting to come to this country on an illegitimate or fraudulent basis; and further urges the Government to provide the UK Border Agency with the resources and management skills to ensure that applicants for visas get the service they have a right to expect.

This motion has been signed by a total of 1 MPs.