New Claims Of Lax UK Border Controls

New claims about lax border controls and the deeply disfunctional state of the agency carrying out checks on millions of people entering the UK every year look set to put further pressure on the Home Secretary.

Coach passengers arriving at Dover have not faced proper checks since 2007, according to the Sunday Telegraph.

Officials only matched passport photographs to the bearers rather than cross-checking them against computer databases of terrorists, criminals and immigration offenders in order to ease queues at the port, the newspaper reports.

The relaxation which was introduced under the last Labour administration was only halted after senior border officials were suspended following the relaxation of checks over the summer.

Brodie Clark, who quit his post as head of the UK Border Force amid an acrimonious dispute with Home Secretary Theresa May over whether she ordered the relaxation , will face questions from MPs this week.

Labour MP Keith Vaz, who chairs the Home Affairs Committee which will speak to Mr Brodie on Tuesday, said the latest claims raise "serious concerns about the history of checks undertaken".

"We must ensure our border checks are not compromised and that the UKBA has the resources it needs to thoroughly check every individual coming into Britain," he told the newspaper.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Times reported an unnammed middle manager within the agency as saying the agency is a "basket case".

The newspaper says the "whistleblower" described how dangerous asylum seekers were being released into the community; complicated cases were being abandoned to save time; and figures are being "massaged" to mask the crisis.

The Sunday Times also reports that a middle man offered to sell it documents from a border official that would allow a migrant to stay in the UK.

A Home Office spokesman said: "Nothing is more important than the integrity of our border in order to protect national security and reduce and control immigration.

"There are ongoing investigations into allegations regarding the relaxation of border controls without ministerial approval."