Immigration news

The Guardian, a national UK newspaper, has received a leaked email trail from UK civil servants which seems to show that UK ministers considered the possibility of preventing the children of illegal immigrants from attending free UK state schools to prevent 'education tourism'. It seems that any such plans were quickly dropped but ministers are now considering asking schools to check on the immigration status of both pupils and their parents as part of the admissions process.

An Oxford University study suggests that there are approximately 120,000 schoolchildren in UK schools who are in the country illegally.

On Tuesday 26th March 2013, a committee of MPs interviewed two senior civil servants about the way the UK's immigration services will be run in future. The interview came just minutes after the Home Secretary, Theresa May, had made a surprise announcement that the UK Border Agency, the body that deals with immigration and asylum in the UK, was to be abolished.

As of 23rd March, the Australian government has reduced the number of visitor visa subclasses from nine to five. Australian immigration minister Brendan O'Connor said it would simplify the system and eliminate red tape.

The Canadian immigration minister Jason Kenney gave a somewhat self-congratulatory presentation at Mississauga, Ontario on March 26th 2013 in which he laid out the actions that his department had taken since 2008 to reduce the backlog of cases waiting for decisions on Canadian permanent residency applications. Mr Kenney's Conservative Party came to power in Canada in 2008.

The UK's Home Secretary, Theresa May MP, has told the House of Commons that the UK's main immigration authority, the UK Border Agency (UKBA), is to be split because it is 'not good enough'. She says it will split into two bodies one of which will deal with UK visa applications and the other with finding and removing illegal immigrants.

A committee of MPs has issued a report about the UK Border Agency (UKBA) which states that its already poor performance is getting worse. The report says that senior staff should not receive any performance-related bonuses until 'there is evidence that the backlog [of unresolved cases] is being substantially reduced and new backlogs are not emerging'.