• Home Office Uk Border Agency

UK Border Agency. It was formed as an executive agency on 1 April 2008 by a merger of the Border and Immigration Agency (BIA), UKvisas and the Detection functions of HM Revenue and Customs. The decision to create a single border control organisation was taken following a Cabinet Office report. Heathrow A routine passport control check with Immigration Officer Steve Hassler turns into a marathon investigation. UK Border Force - Season 1, Episode 8 - Duration. UK Border Force. Immigration officer. Immigration officers make decisions on whether people have the right to visit or stay in the UK.

EU citizens are free to live and work in any of the bloc's 28 member states - set to fall to 27 when the UK leaves - without the need for a visa. This is known as free movement of labour, one of the EU's four freedoms along with capital, goods and services. There are some restrictions - after three months, EU migrants should prove that they are working, a student or have sufficient resources to support themselves without relying on the benefits system. Although all EU nations take advantage of free movement, the greatest movers to the UK in recent years have been from Eastern European countries. For those wanting to move to the UK from outside the EU, to work or study, there are different rules.

You must apply for one of a number of visas. These can range from Tier 1, preserved for investors and 'exceptional talent', to Tier 5 visas for short-term voluntary and educational programmes. The two most common are the Tier 2 skilled worker visas and Tier 4 student visas. Currently, no Tier 3 - unskilled labour - visas are being given out.

Some of these visas allow you to apply to bring dependants such as children and partners. Visas work on a points-based system.

The criteria for these visas has got tougher in recent years. For example, for a Tier2 'experienced skilled worker' visa, you now need to be paid at least £30,000 to apply, up almost £10,000 from 2011. You get more points for higher salaries or if your job is on the list of shortage occupations.

The number of these Tier 2 visas handed out is currently capped at 20,700 per year. Most visas come with other conditions, including a knowledge of English, the need for a sponsor and agreeing not to claim benefits for a period of time. Once they have claimed asylum, they are given housing and financial support by the government until their application is dealt with. After that they might be granted refugee status, allowed to stay for other reasons or sent home. If an applicant or their dependant is denied asylum, they can appeal against the decision. There is usually a high rate of success in these appeals - in 2017, there were 17,390 asylum appeals heard in a lower asylum tribunal, of which 6,854 were successful.

The UK has also committed to taking in 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020 as part of the international humanitarian effort. People who breach the terms of their entry visas (or simply overstay as tourists), are breaking the law. It is not entirely clear how many illegal immigrants there are in the UK, although range from 300,000 to over a million. Although tough rules have been gradually introduced under successive governments, the 'hostile environment' policy of 2012 bolstered attempts to make life in the UK more difficult for illegal immigrants. This has included reducing ability to access work, healthcare and housing.

Enforced removals refers to those who are physically removed from the country. If someone disagrees with a decision made by the Home Office they can take it to an immigration and asylum tribunal.

In 2012, legal aid was removed for many immigration cases, and there has been a recent decrease in cases heard. In 2017, 53% of the total claims ruled on were rejected.

This increases to 60% when just taking into account asylum tribunals. People might go to an immigration tribunal for a number of reasons, including breaches of freedom of movement, human rights and issues relating to family.

. Paul Lincoln, Director General Parent agency Facilities. HMC Alert. Website Border Force is a part of the, responsible for frontline operations at air, sea and rail ports in the. The force was part of the now defunct from its establishment in 2008 until demerged it in March 2012 after severe criticism of the senior management. Since 1 March 2012, Border Force has been a law-enforcement command within the Home Office, accountable directly to ministers. Border Force is responsible for immigration and customs at 140 rail, air and sea ports in the UK and western Europe, as well as thousands of smaller airstrips, ports and marinas.

The work of the Border Force is monitored by the. Border Force officers are not police constables and the Border Force is not a police force. However, aside from powers listed below in relation to immigration and customs, section 2 of the Borders Act 2007 does allow designated members of the Border Force to detain anyone for any criminal offence or arrest warrant at a port if the Border Officer thinks they would be liable to arrest by a police constable. The power allows detention for 3 hours pending the arrival of a police constable. The power also applies to points of entry in Belgium and France where Border Officers work whereby the Border Officer will turn the detained person over to French or Belgian police officers as appropriate.

Contents. History Border Force was born out of a confusing decade for the UK immigration and customs after several attempts of reform and re-structure.

Prior to 2007 three agencies were responsible for border control in the UK, HMRC (HMCE till 2005) dealt with customs, Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) dealt with all immigration roles within the UK and at the border, and UKVisas issued visas both from the UK and its offices abroad. As early as 2003 a single 'border police force' had been proposed.

In 2005 HMCE and Inland revenue merged to form HMRC. HMRC were still response for customs control at the border until 2008. Throughout 2006 and 2007 there were suggestions for a merged border control department. Initially this plan was to turn the Immigration and Nationality Directorate into a uniformed body of Immigration officers at the border, the Border and Immigration Agency. The BIA was created on 1 April 2007 and short lived.

It was replaced only a year later on 1 April 2008 by the UK Border Agency. The UK Border agency was a merger of the Border and Immigration Agency (BIA), UKvisas and the port customs functions of HM Revenue and Customs. It created one of the largest law enforcement bodies in the UK.

UKBA had a chequered history. There were difficulties with the management of student visas under Tier 4 of the Points-Based System.

The assessment of the, carried out between July and August 2010, found that there was an inconsistent response towards applications, with some cases given extra time to prepare and others dismissed for minor reasons. In November 2011, the Home Affairs Select Committee issued a report that found that 124,000 deportation cases had been shelved by the UKBA. The report said the cases had been dumped in a 'controlled archive', a term used to try to hide the fact from authorities and auditors that it was a list of lost applicants. Following allegations that staff were told to relax some identity checks, in November 2011 the UK Home Office suspended, the Head of the; Carole Upshall, director of the Border Agency South and European Operation; Graham Kyle, director of operations at Heathrow Airport. The Home Office investigated allegations that Clark had agreed to 'open up the borders' at certain times in ways ministers would 'not have agreed with'. It is alleged that between July and the end of October 2011, queues at passport control were 'managed' so as not to annoy holiday makers.

The reported that staff may have been told not to scan at certain times. A biometric passport contains a digital image of the holder's face, which can be used to compare with the printed version and check the passport has not been forged. It is also believed that 'warning index checks' at Heathrow and Calais were also suspended, which would have applied strict security checks against official watchlists of terrorists, criminals, and deported illegal immigrants.

After Clark refused the offer to take early retirement, he was suspended and the investigation began. A two-week inquiry led by former Metropolitan Police detective Dave Wood, head of the agency's enforcement and crime group at the time, sought to discover to what extent checks were scaled down, and what the security implications might have been. A second investigation, led by former official Mike Anderson, the Director General of the Home Office's strategy, immigration and international group, sought to investigate wider issues relating to the performance of UKBA regarding racism. The issues relating to lost documents and case files was still going on at the same time, along with a backlog of cases. It was then announced on 5 November by Theresa May that an independent inquiry would also be undertaken, led by the, John Vine.

Following all these combined failings, UK Border Force became a separate organisation on 1 March 2012. The first Director General of Border Force was the former Chief Constable of, who was appointed on secondment on an interim basis to last until 31 August 2012 and was expected to apply for the position permanently, despite criticism of his management of passport queues. On 10 July 2012, Immigration Minister confirmed that Moore had not applied for the post, despite Moore earlier telling the that he would be applying.

Tony Smith was appointed as interim Director General of Border Force on 19 September 2012. Smith was previously Gold Commander for the London 2012 Olympic Programme and Regional Director for London and the South East in the.

And has spent forty years in border control and enforcement work. Was named as the new Director General on 25 January 2013. In June 2017 Montgomery left Border Force and Paul Lincoln a civil servant from the MOD and Home office appointed as the new Director General. Neither of the two had any previous experience of immigration or customs.

Responsibilities The stated responsibilities of the 's Border Force are the following:. checking the immigration status of people arriving in and departing the UK.

searching baggage, vehicles and cargo for illicit goods or illegal immigrants. patrolling the British coastline and searching vessels. gathering intelligence.

alerting the police and security services to people of interest Border Force is responsible for immigration and customs at 140 rail, air and sea ports in the UK and western Europe, as well as thousands of smaller airstrips, ports and marinas. Powers Staff hold a mixture of powers granted to them by their status as immigration officers and designated customs officials. Immigration powers.

Main article: Immigration officers have powers of arrest and detention conferred on them by the and subsequent Immigration Acts, when both at ports and inland. In practice, non-arrest trained Border Force immigration officers exercise powers under Schedule 2 of the Immigration Act 1971, while inland immigration officers work under S28A-H of the Immigration Act 1971 and paragraph 17 of Schedule 2 of the same Act, as do arrest-trained Border Force immigration officers at the frontier. Historically, port and inland immigration officers received different training to reflect these different approaches to immigration enforcement, which is now reinforced by inland officers working for Immigration Enforcement, a separate Home Office Command.

'Designated Immigration Officers' are Border Force immigration officers who have been designated with additional detention powers, under Sections 1 to 4 of the UK Borders Act 2007, where a person at a port or airport is suspected of being liable to arrest by a police officer for non-border offences. Customs powers. Main article: Border Force officers, designated as customs officials under the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009, have wide-ranging powers of entry, search, seizure and arrest. They hold the same customs and excise powers as officers of, but cannot use HMRC powers for non-border matters, such as Income Tax and VAT. Amongst their powers is the ability to arrest anyone who has committed, or whom the officer has reasonable grounds to suspect has committed, any offence under the Customs and Excise Acts. They may also seize prohibited and restricted goods, such as controlled drugs and firearms, as well as ensuring that imported goods bear the correct taxes and duties.

Training. This section's tone or style may not reflect the used on Wikipedia. See Wikipedia's for suggestions.

( June 2018) The Border Force Officer training pathway consists of three standalone programmes aligned to professional frameworks including the Operational Delivery Framework, Civil Service Competency Framework and European Sectoral Qualifications Framework. Core Skills 1 programme is a three part programme designed to test both skills and knowledge of the immigration function at the Primary Control Point (PCP), as well as some customs functions. The three parts include pre course online learning, classroom learning and mentoring. The classroom element is a three week programme combining assessment, role-play, live and theoretical tests. This is then followed by a period of consolidated learning (mentoring) in an operational environment, which can take up to 4 weeks. Once all three strands of the programme have been completed and all the necessary tests and assessments have been passed, this will give successful officers the power to act under the Immigration Act.

Following this initial phase your training will include:. ongoing on-the-job mentoring. Some specialist training as well as the Core Skills 3 programme, which includes further classroom training normally undertaken within 12 months. Core Skills 2 is the customs course.

This consists of a 5 week course plus about 5 weeks of mentoring. Core Skills 3 which is the investigation/casework immigration course.

This consists of 15 day course plus 3/4 weeks of mentoring. In addition there is Personal safety training (PST) (self defence/restraint/handcuffing/baton training). Organisation. Protector Notable operations and successes.

On 23rd April 2015, HMC Valiant assisted by HMS Somerset who had NCA officers on board, Intercepted the MV Hamal, a tug, and after she was searched in the largest UK drug seizure of 3.2 tonnes of cocaine was found onboard, in her forward ballast tank. There was so much on board it took three days to remove and had to be placed under armed guard. On 31st July 2017, Border Force won a court case where a judge declared child sex dolls to be an obscene item after a seizure of one was challenged. On 31st January 2018, Border force officers at became suspicious after a routine boarding and inspection of a private jet from, and upon a Customs search; discovered 500kg of cocaine worth a street value of £50,000,000 in fifteen suitcases. During the, Border Force rescued over 1,650 migrants and arrested 27 suspected people smugglers over one summer as part of the EU Mission in the. In February 2017, Border Force took part in Operation Thunderbird organised by INTERPOL to tackle wildlife crime and wildlife trafficking. Border Force officers made 182 seizures during the operation, which ran between 30 January and 19 February.

Among the items found were 11 kilos of ivory, 600,000 live eels, 74 live orchids, eight cacti, 13 reptile skin products, around 3,500 musical instruments containing CITES wood. In December 2012, Border Force seized 1.2 tonnes of fake CDs at. A couple were convicted in April 2013 for trying to smuggle a Nigerian baby into the UK, claiming it was their own. They were stopped and investigated after Border Force officers became suspicious. Border Force Detector dog Megan became the most successful UK drug detector dog. Over a seven-year period with Border Force, she foiled 102 smuggling attempts into the UK. She retired in March 2014.

Another Border Force detector dog, Jessie found £1,000,000 being smuggled over a five-month period. Two separate attempts to smuggle birds into the UK inside suitcases was prevented by Border Force officers at in May 2013. Twelve critically endangered iguanas seized from smugglers by Border Force officers at have been returned home to their native. The reptiles were discovered in the baggage of two Romanian nationals on 3 February 2014 by officers carrying out customs checks. In September 2015, Border Force officers seized a tonne of cannabis at London Gateway port.

It came after 2 tonnes were seized there in February 2015. See also. References. Retrieved 4 August 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2016. Expert Participation. Retrieved 2018-11-26.

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Home Office Uk Border Agency

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