Thousands of asylum seekers could be allowed to STAY in Britain in an 'effective amnesty'

Hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers whose cases were lost or overlooked by the Home Office are set to be allowed to stay in Britain in what critics condemned as an 'effective amnesty'.

The Home Office was engulfed in scandal two years ago when a staggering backlog of 450,000 cases files was found lying around in boxes, some dating back to the mid-1990s and beyond, including many would-be refugees whose cases had been rejected as bogus but who had never been deported.

Latest figures on efforts to deal with the fiasco revealed that two years later officials have processed just 90,000 of the files, and almost half - 43 per cent - of the applicants have been told they can stay in Britain permanently.

Many of the cases are still considered unfounded, but the asylum seekers and their families have been living in the UK for so long that the courts are almost certain to block any efforts to deport them on human rights grounds.

All those allowed to stay will be able to claim benefits and seek British citizenship, regardless of the merits of their original claims.

The latest figures prompted strong criticism, with opposition critics calling on the Government to enforce existing rules firmly - regardless of how long cases had been languishing in the Home Office's system.

Shadow Home Secretary, Dominic Grieve, said: 'This exercise should be about reviewing applications properly and granting asylum in genuine cases.

'The Government should not be tempted to grant an effective amnesty just to get the backlog cleared, and achieve a good headline.'

Asylum seekers: Many cases languish in the system

With the Home Office in meltdown two years ago - and its systems famously described by the then Home Secretary John Reid as 'not fit for purpose' - civil servants uncovered vast numbers of old asylum files languishing in boxes, and a clearance exercise was launched.

Two years on around 90,000 of the 450,000 files have been dealt with, suggesting the process could take a decade or more, especially as officials are tackling many of the simpler cases first.

Lin Homer, chief executive of the Border Agency, set out the latest figures in a letter to MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee, revealing that out of 90,000 cases, only 20,000 people have been removed from the UK.

In 39,000 cases, the applicants were told they could stay and the remaining cases were 'closed', either because they were duplicates or the individuals were no longer in Britain or their home countries had since joined the EU meaning they are now entitled to live here.

Of those removed, a quarter had been living in Britain for seven years or more.

Another Home Office ' backlog-clearance exercise' dating back to 2003 allowed around 80,000 asylum seekers whose cases had been stuck in the chaotic system for many years to stay, regardless of the merits of their claims.

The number of failed asylum seekers being deported from the UK has slumped dramatically in recent months, as officials have been ordered to concentrate on removing foreign national criminals.

In 2007 some 13,600 were thrown out of the UK, down from 18,000 the year before.

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