Outside the system

MLAs are being given a cold shoulder as they try to help constituents with immigration problems. Ryan Jennings reports.

Nearly 150 immigration cases have been taken up by elected MLAs in the last two years but UK Border Agency officials still close the door on their queries. As previously reported by agendaNi and now substantiated by a freedom of information request, Assembly representatives must pass on all immigration cases to an MP.

The information shows that MLAs’ enquiries to the agency must first go through an MP or UK Government Minister before they are dealt with by the agency.

Correspondence is recorded in three ways:

· Written correspondence sent directly to a Minister or MP, or to the MPs’ Liaison Unit in UKBA’s Croydon office;

· Telephone enquiries made to the MPs’ enquiry line; and

· Email correspondence sent to the central MPs’ enquiry inbox.

Varying from visa problems to asylum cases, MLAs’ enquiries cover a broad range of queries. The MPs’ Liaison Unit co-ordinates all written contact between the agency and elected representatives, and this is where the agency receives the vast majority of its enquiries (see figure 1).

Only MPs’ details for telephone enquiries are recorded but these account for the vast bulk of calls anyway (see figure 2). Since July 2009 the telephone enquiry line has only accepted queries from MPs and so does not answer those put forward by members of devolved legislatures.

Phone queries from MLAs on general policy or for information which is not related to a specific case will still be answered, agendaNi understands.

The inbox (see figure 3) proved the least used facility. A total of 2,366 emails were received from MPs in 2008, with no other representatives choosing that route. The following year saw the figure increase to 3,097. MLAs sent four enquires.

South Belfast Alliance MLA Anna Lo described the situation as “very frustrating” and said: “It is obviously very awkward if we want to represent members of our constituency.” MLAs without a dual mandate therefore have to rely on a “sympathetic” MP take up a constituent’s cause, which Alasdair McDonnell has been open to doing.

Alliance, though, was reluctant to pass cases on to the SDLP for party-political reasons as it believes that applicants may have consciously stayed clear of the unionist or nationalist parties. Lo’s office has dealt with 85 cases directly related to immigration in the last 18 months.

An applicant does not have to be resident in an MLA’s constituency to have their case taken up. Anna Lo has taken cases from outside South Belfast and can now pass these on to new her party’s East Belfast MP, Naomi Long, rather than McDonnell.

Party leader David Ford has written to the Secretary of State to highlight the problem but agendaNi understands that to date the response has been non-committal.

We also understand that before the election there were informal discussions which could have led to a compromise being reached, whereby the agency could be opened up temporarily to devolved legislature members. That, though, has not been pursued by the new coalition so far.

A Home Office spokeswoman told agendaNi that the Government will be seeking views in due course and added: “Immigration is a reserved matter and constituents can continue to make representations through their elected Westminster MP.”

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3