"...it is easier to let them in than reject applications"

The Telegraph report:

"In a staggering admission, Linda Costelloe-Baker, who monitors visa refusals, told MPs around 15 per cent of short-term visas are wrongly approved because it is easier to let them in than reject applications.

She said officials were "under pressure" to issue visas rather than reject them to help hit productivity targets.

It means hundreds of thousands of people arriving in the UK each year who should not be here.

And if they are a potential risk then it means they are more likely to overstay the visa and slip under the radar as an illegal immigrant.

The Government has previously estimated there could be as many as 570,000 illegal immigrants here but with so many visas being incorrectly issued over the years, that figure could now run in to the millions.

Ms Costelloe-Baker, the independent monitor for entry clearance refusals, told the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee officials considering visa applications found it much easier to approve than reject them because it was a "much faster" process.

"I don't think there has been adequate scrutiny of decisions to issue," she said. "I think there is pressure to issue visas because it helps people hit their productivity targets."

Committee member and Tory MP David Davies asked if it was reasonable to assume that 15 per cent of approval notices were "incorrectly approved".

"I think that's a reasonable supposition," Ms Costelloe-Baker said."

Secure borders? And to think some people believe that this Labour government have pursued a deliberate policy of allowing excess immigration as a way of driving down costs and increasing the potential Labour vote.