Report published on ECAA visa furore

A series of measures to tighten the operation of the European Community Association Agreement (ECAA) in Bulgaria and Romania were announced today as the Home Secretary published the findings of an investigation into allegations of abuse relating to self-employment.

The report, ordered by the Home Secretary and conducted by senior civil servant Ken Sutton, confirmed that there is evidence that the ECAA category "has been exploited". It sets out the "serious failure" in the operation of the scheme.

A key weakness of the operation of the scheme was the use, without challenge, of pro forma business plans, often facilitated by paid advisers. The Immigration department took which was that there was little room in law for refusing these applications, particularly following a 2001 judgement by the European Court of Justice. Although staff in Bucharest and Sofia favoured a much tougher approach, the department's view prevailed, the Home Office said.

Although significant numbers of applications have been processed, the nature of the scheme means that only 150 of these have resulted in the grant of indefinite leave to remain in the UK.

Shadow Home Secretary David Davis has called for a "full-scale shakeup" of the immigration apparatus.

Mr Davis said that "embarrassing failures" had occurred.

He added: "Let's be clear. This crisis over UK visas is entirely of the government's own making. These reports confirm they were spending far too much time on asylum statistics to pay attention to the massive rise in visa applications.

"The government's target driven culture has brought the Immigration Department to its knees. Because of this culture, staff didn't have time to check up on forgeries and were pressurised into rubber-stamping applications."

The report however rejected the central allegation that the Home Office took no steps to address exploitation of the scheme. Nor does the report uphold the accusation that applications were simply waved through in order to meet an asylum target, the Home Office said.

The Home Secretary accepted the report's 15 recommendations, and said: "The report shows that there were serious failings in how ECAA applications for self-employment from Bulgaria and Romania were handled. This is clearly unacceptable and something ministers and managers alike are determined to take responsibility for and sort out."

Further action by the government includes: more intelligence officers to be posted including to Sofia; a team comprising Home Office, Ukvisas and FCO staff will shortly visit Bucharest and Sofia to establish the new approach; and all those already in the UK under the ECAA for a limited period will be fully tested before they are granted Indefinite Leave to Remain.

(gmcg)