The Home Office has committed to switching the UK borders and immigration system online by the end of 2024 has been accused of ignoring warnings that its new borders system could cause chaos for millions of people in the UK, with fears that technical faults and poor communication could leave residents stranded overseas or unable to rent and work.It says the move will make the border more secure, ensuring “firm control over who comes here to live, work or study”.
Since April, the department has been incrementally inviting people to transfer their documents to a digital eVisa. eVisas are an electronic record of someone’s immigration status, and are securely linked to their biometric information. They aren’t a digital document, but a code which can be given out.
Those who miss the deadline may be able to use expired BRP documents to set up accounts, but experts fear some people will only realise they need to switch to online when it’s too late.Millions of people already use eVisas under the EU Settlement Scheme, which opened in March 2019. But migration groups say that this system has been marred with problems, which they don’t want to see extended to the rest of the population.
While people will be able to set up the eVisa at that point, Ms Bantleman fears that it will be too late. “EU citizens and their family members who remained in the UK after Brexit… were the group of individuals who, having been granted status under the EU Settlement Scheme, became the ‘guinea pigs’ for digital only immigration status,” she said.
“This cliff-edge system has the serious potential to become a Windrush on steroids,” the migrant organisation added.The Home Office says it is informing migrants of the need to set up a digital system, with messages on the Government wesbite and engagement with the media and related groups. Lawyers estimate that they have received hundreds, if not thousands, of such emails since the rollout began., contains a link to set up the account with the instruction not to share it with anyone else “as it may not work for them”. The Home Office says the emails are standardised for security reasons., the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association warning that solicitors may be “flooded” with emails and that it was “impossible to identify which client this notice is intended to reach”.
Ms Bantleman said she did not believe that wider communications efforts from the Home Office would make everyone affected by the change aware of what they needed to do.
Source: Law Daily Report (lawdailyreport.net)
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