So many asylum seekers have been given leave to remain in the UK that it "amounts to an amnesty", MPs have said. Out of 403,500 cases dealt with by the UK Border Agency (UKBA), 9% resulted in removal while 40% of applicants - 161,000 - were allowed to stay. The Home Affairs Committee also said it was "indefensible" that in one in six cases, the UKBA simply had "no idea" what had happened to the applicant. Immigration Minister Damian Green said there was "absolutely no amnesty". He said the government had "eliminated" a backlog of 450,000 asylum cases - the scale of which first emerged in 2006. At the time, the then home secretary John - now Lord - Reid promised to clear it, and the UKBA's deadline for the completion of that task was this summer. Read more here:- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13617183
