The Home Office has relaxed the rules on granting leave to remain so it can clear some 40,000 asylum cases from the backlog, which officials say they are not going to be able to remove.

Such cases are known within the immigration service as "hard cases" because despite there being grounds to remove an individual it is unlikely to happen, certainly in the immediate future, due to external factors.

Predominantly this is because of difficulties in returning failed asylum seekers to their home of origin, mainly because of concerns over conditions there or the actions of the countries.

At present the most difficult countries to return individuals to are Zimbabwe, Somalia, Iran, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Algeria, Nigeria and China.

Problems vary from country to country and from one time to another but often centre on it being unsafe to return.

Other delaying tactics come from the countries' officials who may refuse to accept the individual as one of their citizens as many asylum seekers are undocumented when they arrive in the UK.

Lin Homer, the chief executive of the UK Border Agency, told MPs in the summer that there were large cohorts from Nigeria, Somalia and Algeria.

She added: "There are other countries where we find it very difficult to establish returns. I have to say we do not take no for an answer, and we have now returned 26 people to the DRC this year and that is a real breakthrough for us.

"We sent 26 back to Somalia this year. That is a great breakthrough for us and not something we have achieved in any number before this year. So we do not take no for an answer but we have to establish a route, and the courts have to be sure that it is safe.

"I think it is frustrating for the public, I think it is frustrating for us and what I would say is it is one of the reasons why we put significant effort into re-establishing relationships with other countries that allow us to do returns."

Source: telegraph.co.uk

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