Immigration Solicitors

On Tuesday 22nd October, the spokesman said “the Home Secretary has seen an interim evaluation and has not been convinced by the results. As such there will be no further rollout”.

In July 2013, a Home Office spokesman said that, if one illegal immigrant went home voluntarily after a week long pilot scheme was held, in which vans carrying the “go home” message were driven around London, then the scheme would have been justified; due to the fact that it costs £15,000 to find and deport one immigrant, whereas the week long pilot cost £10,000.

Despite considerable negative publicity, senior Conservatives initially defended the campaign. On 29th July, a spokesman for PM David Cameron said that it was “clear that (the van scheme) is already working.”

Appearing before the Home Affairs Committee in early October, immigration minister Mark Harper defended the scheme; “The first voluntary departure as a result of this pilot took place on 2nd August.

“It was a href="https://www.duncanlewis.co.uk/brochures_Urdu.html">Pakistani national who had been living illegally in the UK since December (...) he saw a picture of the ad van in the Guardian and he texted the number and we arranged for his flight home.”

“So at least one individual has left the country as a result of this pilot, so form a cost perspective (...) the pilot has already paid for itself.”

Mr Harper has defended the scheme up until as recent as the 17th of October, Mr Harper defended the scheme on BBC television;

“I don’t see any problem with saying to people who have no right to be in in the United Kingdom they can’t be here anymore”. But he said that the scheme would only be ‘rolled out’ if analysis of the data showed that the pilot had been effective.

The pilot, that was held between the 22nd and the 29th July 2013 received over 400 complaints. Vans bearing a billboard with the slogan ‘In the UK illegally? Go home or face arrest” were sent out to drive around the streets of six London boroughs thought to contain high volumes of illegal immigrants; Hounslow, Ealing and Brent, Barnet, Barking and Dagenham and Redbridge.

The adverts attracted immediate hostility from the public which resulted in over 400 people making complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority, many complaining that the text was racially offensive. The ASA found that the adverts were misleading and ‘distasteful’, but not offensive.

If you have concerns about immigration, or if you are having legal issues with your visa,then get in touch with Duncan Lewis immigration solicitors.