Don't tell any potential illegal immigrant!

The Sunday Times announced it on Sunday last, so it is not an April 1st joke, although the unbelievable will start on April 1st.

Officers of the new Border and immigration Agency (BIA) have been told that from April 1st, only a minimum number of staff should be on duty at week-ends, in order to answer essential calls. Efforts to track down and apprehend those who should not be here will be suspended for two days.

All this is to save costs. Staff are paid extra to work at week-ends, so to make the savings of £80m to £100m demanded by the Treasury it may make a certain financial sense....

John Tincey is vice president of the Immigration Service Union which represents 4,000 immigration staff. His view is that the arrangement will make Saturdays and Sundays in effect an "open season" for offenders.

It should be pointed out that this does not affect the manning of immigration desks at ports and air-ports, which is done by a separate division of the BIA. What it does mean is that efforts to track down foreign criminals for deportation will be suspended, and asylum seekers or others who have managed to by-pass port controls will be free from attention, over the week-end.

In how many cases will a search go cold over the week-end, meaning a new start and time wasted, or suspects move their location?

Does the government really want to have secure borders as they claim? Their record on immigrants has been shown to be poor on a regular basis. This will certainly not improve their reputation.