Now if you aren't already aware of the internal intricacies of our wonderful Borders and Immigration Agency, let me enlighten you. In summary - the agency is not fit for fucking purpose. Having worked there (and resigned in disgust) I can give you a tour de force of the colossal shortcomings and mind numbing idiocracy that it is.
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Many of these people have been able to extend their stay for a sufficient period of time to apply for citizenship. All on the basis of some incredibly shoddy fraudulent documents.
And it only takes one batch of these documents to get you in. After that, you're laughing.
As the Times articles details, one of the hucksters who set up one of these institutions wrote letters and documents to give himself qualifications. Its even more of a breeze to write fake attendance records and glowing references for your pals from Swat Valley.
Oh, didn't I mention that bit? That's right, through this secure system of assessment hundreds of applicants have arrived, and remained, in the UK who originated in the Taleban and Al Queda hotbeds of North Western Pakistan. And these are just hundreds from this one network of scams that the Times has exposed.
So here's one of the points I really really want to drive home: These kind of institutions, scams and applications were (and probably still are) the norm at the Home Office.
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I don't think many people (especially those mentalist "no borders" people) really, truly, realise just how utterly shoddy and mind numbingly incompetent the nation's border control is. I laughed hard when I realised that many people labour under the illusion that the Home Office keeps track of all these applicants. It doesn't. Very often no one even realises someone has overstayed unless that put in a fresh application.
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That's right folks. For years and years, the number of dodgy institutions providing a magic carpet for equally dodgy individuals to fly into the country has been approximately 13,460.
Thirteen thousand, four hundred and sixty!!
Go read it all and get angry:
http://i-squared.blogspot.com/2009/05/immigration-and-intelligence-view-from.html
Then consider who is doing the vetting at the Borders agency … and know you that these days it’s not usually Saxons or Celts.
Arrived at passport control at Heathrow Terminal Three in recent years? (which is only the outward face of a huge Home Office Immigration bureaucracy – and who’s been getting all those hidden bureaucratic jobs? Can you guess?)
Give it a try sometime. Last time my brother came visiting from Australia only one control desk had a whitey on it. And as he used one of the other desks, he couldn’t even be sure that at least that one whitey was a natural Briton.
Morg
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