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The Immigration Control unit has been reorganized repeatedly since it was labeled “not fit for purpose”.
The Home Office “has no idea” what its £ 400 million a year immigration control unit accomplishes, meaning it is not prepared for Brexit, MPs warned.
The multi-party Public Accounts Committee said the lack of diversity at the top of the department also ran the risk of a repeat of the Windrush scandal.
Its policies may be based purely on “assumptions and biases,” he warned.
A Home Office source said the Home Secretary promised to implement the findings of a review at Windrush.
The 5,000-member Directorate of the Interior Ministry’s Immigration Control Service and other parts of the system have been reorganized repeatedly since the then Interior Secretary called them “unfit for purpose” 15 years ago.
The latest massive changes will come in January to address the end of freedom of movement.
In the highly critical report, the influential committee said officials relied on “disturbingly weak evidence” to assess which immigration enforcement policies worked and why.
Officials had no idea how many people are living illegally in the UK, no idea what their impact was on the economy and public services, and they had no way to counter claims that they could “inflame hostility.”
“We are concerned that if the department does not make decisions based on evidence, it runs the risk of doing so because of anecdotes, assumptions and prejudices,” said the MPs.
“It is worrying that he has no idea of the impact he has made with the £ 400 million spent each year.”
MPs said the department showed little concern about the flaws.
There was a risk of a repeat of the Windrush scandal in which people with the right to be in the UK were treated as illegal immigrants because the Home Office had lost their status records or did not believe the evidence they provided.
“The significant lack of diversity at the top levels of the department means that it does not access a sufficiently wide range of perspectives when setting rules and evaluating the human impact of its decisions,” deputies said. “You can’t rely on professional judgment if an organization has blind spots, and the Windrush scandal demonstrated the damage that culture creates.”
From January, unless the UK reaches an agreement with Brussels, it will no longer be part of a system that forces EU members to accept some immigrants who have no right to be in another state.
But MPs said they had not been provided “any evidence” that the Interior Ministry had initiated talks “internally” or with EU nations on how to prepare for the possible impact of that change.
“Without successfully launching new agreements,” the deputies warned, “there is a real risk that leaving the EU will actually make it difficult to expel foreign criminals and those trying to enter the country illegally.”
Committee chair Meg Hillier, MP said: “The Home Office has shockingly little understanding of the impact of its activities on immigration management.
“He accepts the debris that his ignorance and the culture he has fostered caused in the Windrush scandal, but the evidence we saw shows little intention of change and does not inspire confidence that the next scandal of this type is not around the corner. corner.
A source from the Interior Ministry said: “The Interior Minister agrees with the assessment made by the Public Accounts Committee of the historical problems in the Interior Ministry.
“She has spoken at length about how the department puts process before people and that is why she is committed to implementing the findings of the Wendy Williams review at Windrush.”
