UK Edition
The number of illegal migrants caught trying to enter the UK with fake identity documents jumped to more than 2,000 a year - as prosecutions plummeted by 75 per cent.
Figures revealed through Freedom of Information requests showed that Border Force uncovered 2,134 cases of migrants using fraudulent documents to enter the UK in 2019, up from 1,589 in 2010.
Prosecutions have, however, fallen over the same period from 1,200 to just 300, accounting for just a quarter of the cases where migrants have been caught with fake documents.
Among those who have used fake documents to enter the UK is Emad Al Swealmeen, the Liverpool bomber, who blew himself up outside a women’s hospital on November 11. He deceived officials during an asylum interview after using a fake Jordanian passport to enter the UK.
Migration Watch, which uncovered the figures, also cited the case of an Albanian who used the false documents to gain entry to the UK so he could set up a construction company, through which he earned £4,000 a month.
He used a range of false passports, driving licences and identity cards in different nationalities for more than seven years before being arrested. He was jailed for 32 months in July 2021.
Government ‘doesn’t have the courage’ for necessary action
Alp Mehmet, Migration Watch’s chairman, said: “Presenting false and fraudulent documents is nothing new. What is new - and not lost on traffickers and fixers - is that the absence of genuine documents, and even lying to an official, makes little difference to whether an illegal entrant will be allowed to stay. Indeed, it can work in their favour.
“This absurd situation won’t change until failure by applicants to present proper evidence of who they are leads to asylum or other protection being denied. Sadly, the Government doesn’t have the courage or will for such a course of action.”
The figures showed that there were 21,256 cases of fraudulent documents presented to Border Force officers in the decade to 2020. The increase was blamed on rising migration into the UK.
The most common were European Union, European Economic Area or Swiss identity cards, which accounted for almost half of all false documents detected at the border in 2020. Border Force has stopped accepting such identity cards since October 2021.
Those found in possession of false documents can be prosecuted under the Identity Documents Act 2010, as well as under other laws, with a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison.