Source: PakTribune

LONDON: The Pakistan High Commission in London said it knew nothing about more than 30,000 Pakistanis who had been refused permission to stay in Britain and whose whereabouts were unknown to the British authorities.

According to official documents obtained by the our sources, the chief immigration inspector of the UK Border Agency disclosed for the first time the existence of a backlog of more than 150,000 cases involving people who had been refused permission to stay in Britain. According to the documents, British chief inspector of immigration, John Vine disclosed the existence of the UK Border Agency’s national “migration refusal pool” during his first inspection of a local immigration team. He expressed his concerns and said that it was being impossible to know whether the 150,000 were still in Britain or had left voluntarily.

Vine said in his report that the “migration refusal pool” concerned cases where applications, for instance from students, had been made in the UK to remain, and had been refused. “Applicants are given notice that they must leave the UK within 28 days. The cases are officially described as work in progress.”

The inspectors say that the list includes people who have failed to leave Britain, those who have applied to stay under another category, those who have outstanding legal appeals, and those who have already left the country but by a route not covered by the e-borders computer database. Vine revealed that local immigration staff were confused about how many cases in the pool they were supposed to be chasing.

A source in the UK Border Agency told our sources that a large number of Pakistanis who were in the “refusal pool” had not even been formally served with the documents informing them that they had to leave Britain within 28 days. The Pakistan High Commission seemed to be least bothered about the fate and welfare of the 30,000 missing or underground people. When this scribe contacted Pakistani High Commissioner in the UK Wajid Shamsul Hassan, he actually thanked him for informing him about the development. When our sources contacted the welfare officer at the Pakistan High Commission, Balakh Sher Khosa, he said, “I don’t know about these Pakistanis. I will try to find out and will let you know. You had better ask the high commissioner.”

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