Channel crossings are 'insignificant' to the amount overstaying UK visas, Haigh tells GB News

GB News

The Home Office has been scolded for failing to "get a grip" on those overstaying their visas in Britain, following a staggering new report.As Labour marks its first year in Government, it has been revealed that the Home Office is unaware of how many migrants might have overstayed their skilled worker visas.FULL STORY HERE.

Transcript

00:00Welcome back, 11.43. You're with Ben and Nana on Bristons Newsroom on GB News.

00:05Now, in some shocking government news, or I guess not so shocking, given Labour's track record this past year,

00:10it has been revealed that the Home Office are unaware of how many migrants might have overstayed their skilled worker visas.

00:17Oh, very good, yeah. Not a clue where they are. Human rights lawyer David Hay joins us now for this.

00:21David, good morning. Does this surprise you?

00:25Good morning to you both. I mean, you can probably tell from the smile on my face, not at all.

00:29I mean, it should surprise everyone, but it doesn't.

00:33They've got absolutely no grip on who is in the country and haven't had for a long time.

00:38And that's a really big problem. I mean, obviously, we see more people coming across the channel today.

00:44That's insignificant compared to the number of people that are overstaying not just work visas,

00:49tourist visas and student visas and their families. And we've got no clue who they are.

00:54Take a class action against the Home Office and sue them for failure, because it's absolutely disgusting.

01:02Great idea.

01:03Well, can we not? Because these people, they should, A, they should be on performance-related pay.

01:07That's what I think. But they're not doing the job that they're meant to be doing.

01:10Can this country, can we, as citizens, sue them?

01:14I think that it would be difficult. We've fought with difficulties now.

01:18I think a lot of people probably would, too. But I think, you know, we need to actually improve what they're doing.

01:23And, you know, one of the small things that I've said time and time again is that many, you know,

01:27when we travel, other countries check your passport when you come in and check your passport when you go out.

01:32We don't do that. We rely on this advanced passenger information,

01:35which clearly is lacking because the Home Office isn't even looking at it in this case.

01:39This is a massive problem. And, you know, you saw Keir Starmer talking in this infamous speech about an island of strangers.

01:45This is more like the island of the unknown, because we just don't know who is here.

01:49Yeah, David, you've obviously, you've lived abroad, Dubai, infamously.

01:54Do you, are you aware of any other country that behaves like this?

01:58I mean, I've travelled wildly, both when I ran the football club as well.

02:01And to be honest, only this one, you know, of the kind of the major countries around the world,

02:06the Western countries and the, you know, the countries like, even countries like the Middle East,

02:11all of them check you when you go in and when you go out.

02:13And obviously, if you look at the UAE, Dubai, for example, is a city.

02:17A lot of expats there, we know a lot of British people go there.

02:19You're checked when you go in, you're checked when you go out.

02:21And if you overstay, you're fined. And if you can keep doing it, you're in very big trouble.

02:26And they don't let you back. So, but we don't have that system.

02:28And it's not just, like I said, it's not just skilled workers, students, tourists.

02:33That's the easy way for people to get in.

02:35If they can come in that way and want to overstay, they don't need to worry about coming across the channel.

02:40I know, it's absolutely absurd, really. I don't know what to do about it.

02:43I mean, do you think that perhaps, and this is just my thoughts are,

02:47that the Home Office, people who work there, should be on performance-related pay?

02:51I think there needs to be a better system than there is at the moment.

02:53I mean, how you do that, whether it's performance-related.

02:55But, you know, we need to, they need to keep a track of, if someone's giving, there needs to be responsibility.

02:59So, if someone is giving permits to people, someone needs to have the responsibility to make sure that person is left at the end of the permit.

03:05So, why isn't that part of the process?

03:07You know, if you're looking at treatment of a, you know, if you look at a doctor and there's a treatment of something,

03:10you follow that process through.

03:12That's not being done.

03:13You know, they just assume people have left.

03:15And, of course, as we know, they're not leaving.

03:17But, you know, even after this study, nothing will be done.

03:19There'll be no changes.

03:20Because this is something, you know, I trained in law, you know, a long time ago.

03:24And I trained in a seat in immigration in the city of London law firm.

03:27Even then, there was immigration scams, you know, particularly with private universities doing so-called English courses,

03:35bringing a lot of people in from South London.

03:37It was a scam then, and it's only got worse.

03:39But people, some people might blame a lot of this on a lot of human rights lawyers as well,

03:44who seem to be defending these people if they do eventually get caught and asked to leave.

03:48I think, I mean, you're right to say there are some very dodgy lawyers that are doing things that they shouldn't be doing.

03:54But equally, if the law says that you can do these things,

03:57then it's for the government and the Home Office to change those laws and enforce them.

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