Record number of 207,989 foreigners handed British citizenship last year
- Huge rise on the 82,000 people given citizenship to United Kingdom in 2000
- Requests for papers contributing to massive delays at the Passport Office
- Holiday plans in jeopardy for some due to backlog of 500,000 applications
A surge in applications from migrants is fuelling the Passport Office crisis, it emerged last night.
A record 207,989 foreigners were handed citizenship last year – a huge rise on the 82,000 seen in the year 2000.
Their requests for papers are contributing to the delays at the Passport Office, which is struggling to clear a backlog of 500,000 applications.
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A record 207,989 foreigners were handed citizenship last year - a huge rise on the 82,000 seen in the year 2000
The holiday plans of thousands of families are being wrecked by the failure of their passports to arrive on time. Last year only 3 per cent of those who asked for citizenship were rejected and two million migrants have been awarded it since 2000.
Once citizenship is granted, a first passport application usually follows – a time-consuming bureaucratic exercise that involves a face-to-face interview.
Whistleblowers say these first-time applicants are being pushed to the back of the queue as Passport Office staff try to get to grip on the crisis.
Alp Mehmet, of Migration Watch, said: ‘The moment you become a British citizen you can get a British passport and I suspect many of those 207,000 will have and that is certainly something that adds to the difficulties.’
Adults who had booked face-to-face interviews in London were directed to offices elsewhere to allow staff to concentrate on fast-track renewals.
The Home Office claimed this measure was ‘nothing out of the ordinary’ but applicants described chaotic scenes inside the offices with some people in tears.
Claire McKay spent two days frantically trying to obtain a passport for her teenage daughter to go on holiday. ‘It is very traumatic, I have been crying a lot,’ said the social worker. ‘I was very upset, but it was the only way they would understand.’
The holiday plans of thousands of families are in jeopardy as the Passport Office struggles to clear a backlog of 500,000 applications
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: ‘This shambles just gets worse. Londoners are due to have their passport office part shut in their faces just at the time they need it most.
‘Home Secretary Theresa May has refused to say sorry for her shambles. She needs to get a grip, take responsibility and put this right.’
Under new measures, Britons who are due to travel in the next seven days, and who submitted their application longer than three weeks ago, will be granted a fast-track passport service free.
Expats seeking to renew their passport overseas so they can get back to the UK will gain an automatic 12-month extension and parents living overseas applying for their children will be given emergency travel documents.
One insider said some of his colleagues were becoming suicidal under the pressure of trying to clear the backlog. ‘Theresa May has got no idea. She doesn’t know how bad things are,’ he added.
‘We are just worn out, really worn out, and it’s been going on for far too long. A woman in my team burst into tears because of the pressure.’
Tens of thousands of applications wait to be processed at the Liverpool passport office, one of seven around the country. This photo was taken by an employee who said staff were being drafted in from other departments
The disillusioned employee works at the Liverpool passport office where a member of staff this week leaked a photograph of thousands of applications stacked in meeting rooms waiting to be processed.
He said staff were being drafted in from other departments without adequate training. Critics have blamed job cuts and office closures for the problems.
In the face of mounting fury, Mrs May and other ministers had refused to acknowledge there was a crisis, attributing an ‘unprecedented’ surge in applications to a stronger economy.
In the final three months of last year, 59,687 citizenship applications were approved compared with 41,121 in the same period of 2011. This is the group of people most likely to be seeking their first British passport.
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