Data on migration and crime is 'full of holes', leaving the public and politicians unaware of the true impact of immigration on the UK, according to a report by the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford. The research highlights that the government lacks knowledge about the number of unauthorised individuals in the country and has inadequate information on asylum seekers before and after their initial claims.
The report also notes a scarcity of data on immigration cases affected by the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which hampers informed public debate. Labour has pledged to reinterpret the ECHR to prevent asylum seekers using family life rights to avoid deportation, but Dr Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory, stated that current data cannot provide a clear picture of when the ECHR is invoked.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp accused Labour of 'hiding the very data the public need to understand what is happening to our borders', while Steve Smith, CEO of Care4Calais, warned that a vacuum of good information could be manipulated, inflaming hate and bolstering far-right actors. The data gaps include statistics on migrants' economic outcomes, impact on public services, immigration enforcement, and returns.
There is no official data on the nationalities or immigration statuses of crime suspects, those prosecuted, or convicted, nor on migrants as victims of crime. Last year, it emerged that 4,000 asylum seekers had lost contact with the Home Office, and almost 6,000 whose claims were withdrawn had gone missing. Dr Peter Walsh, senior researcher at the Migration Observatory, said these gaps make it challenging to track asylum seekers through the system.
A Home Office spokesperson responded that the findings are 'not acceptable' but are a product of inheriting a migration system 'out of control', adding that net migration is down by two-thirds and removals of illegal migrants are up 23%.
