Nick Raynsford MP has slammed the UK Border Agency’s claim to have cleared its backlog as ‘laughable’. The Labour MP for Greenwich and Woolwich was reacting to comments made yesterday to the Home Affairs Select Committee by UKBA’s Acting Chief Executive, Jonathan Sedgewick, that the backlog of asylum ‘legacy’ cases has now been cleared. Mr Sedgewick said that should any MPs be aware of any cases that had not yet received a decision, he would look into the applications ‘personally’.

Nick said, ‘Mr Sedgewick is clearly deluding himself if he believes that there are no more outstanding ‘legacy’ asylum cases. The UK Border Agency made a promise that these cases would receive a decision by the summer of this year. We are now approaching winter and my office continues to receive phone, letters and emails calls from desperate people, some of whom came to this country 15 years ago to escape persecution, and yet still have not been told whether they are allowed to stay. I would be able to give him numerous examples of people living in my constituency who have waited years and years to hear if they will be granted asylum, and are still waiting as I speak.

If Mr Sedgewick honours his pledge to look into all such cases ‘personally’, he will be a very busy man over the next few months.  I have been in continuous contact with the UK Border Agency about these cases, and have been asking when a decision will be made for years’.