ORG slams use of e-visas for immigration raids

Open Rights Group has responded to the government’s white paper Restoring Control over the Immigration System.

The white paper calls the shambolic and flawed  e-visa scheme a ‘success’ and says that it will be used to support immigration raids.

Sara Alsherif, Migrant Rights Programme Manager at Open Rights Group said: 

“As a result of the flawed e-visa scheme, people with the legal right to be in the UK have been held at airports, denied jobs and even made homeless. Others are having to rely on documents that expired over five months ago. 

“It is outrageous that the government has the audacity to refer to the shambolic e-visa scheme as ‘successful’. But it’s beyond comprehension that they are considering relying on this flawed scheme to carry out raids and deport people. 

“With the use of technology, automated decision-making and AI, we can expect to see a Windrush scandal on steroids and the Labour government really needs to ask whether it wants to be the architect of such human rights abuses.”

Last September, ORG published a report into the failings of the e-visa scheme. Since then, we have been approached by many people who have experienced problems when trying to register for an e-visa.
The government has since delayed the full roll out of the scheme twice. Some migrants with the legal right to be in the UK are having to used expired documents since the Home Office stopped issuing Biometric Residence Permits at the end of 2024.