An unknown number of immigrants are indefinitely living in the UK because of a misinterpreted border stamp pressed in their passports on arrival.
The UK Home Office and staff seem to be confused on the true interpretation and when or who should benefit from this stamp.
This particular border stamp relates to family members of Europeans coming to the UK. An unknown number of immigrants have been given a passport stamp that appears to grant them the right to live here indefinitely.
One of the Home Office’s own legal representatives has described the stamp as being ‘shrouded in mystery’.
Controversy about this stamp emerged after an Albanian failed asylum seeker was given the stamp in his travel documents after being stopped and quizzed at the UK border in 2020.
It led to a protracted legal challenge that eventually concluded the man’s claim to remain in the UK was invalid.
However, the case has far wider implications. Immigration judges who scrutinised the case have revealed the Home Office has no idea how many passports have been stamped with the same message, which says the holder has been ‘admitted to the UK’ under European regulations.
Meanwhile, the Home Office hasn’t been able to eplain when the stamp, which has been used by Border Force officers at ports and airports across the country for years, should legitimately be awarded or why it is being used mistakenly.
Even passport control supervisors ‘wrongly believe’ they have the power to admit foreign nationals in similar circumstances, judges said, raising further serious questions about Britain’s porous borders.
A Home Office insider said: ‘This stamp could have been used thousands of times. We just don’t know the true figure. Just when you think it can’t get any worse, it does. It’s a total farce.
‘There’s an unknown number of foreign nationals in this country who may be using this stamp to live here indefinitely.
‘Most of them will entirely innocently think the stamp grants them those rights.’
Another border security source said they believed the stamp was used ‘every day’ at ports and airports across the country.
