Neal found that even basic records of biographical information taken by Border Patrol officers were riddled with discrepancies and errors. Almost 1,000 of 7,000 records had surnames made up of only numbers, symbols or single letters such as “#”, “M021 #17 Hamid”, “#27”, “9” or “brasseau”.
Ages were checked using a piece of cardboard with numbers from 1 to 63 written on it. Migrants asked to enter a number to show their age, although most came from countries “where the Roman alphabet was not used”.
There were no translators, so staff used a mixture of speaking slowly in English, showing question sheets in different languages, using other migrants to interpret, asking migrants to write their details on post-it notes or asking -those who entered their own information into the Border Force System.
“These methods are not ideal and risk errors in the information gathering process,” the report said. There were also concerns that migrants were found with weapons after being searched by Border Force agents.
Mr Neal’s report blamed an “ineffective and ineffective” Home Office response for the failures, which had exposed gaps in security procedures and put vulnerable migrants at risk.
Children were often forced to sleep in the same rooms as adult male migrants. Home Office staff did not ask about pregnancy, meaning that unless a woman physically showed signs of carrying a child, identification depended on specific questioning.
The recommendations proposed by Mr. Neal have been accepted by the Home Office, who said: “There is work to be done, but much of this report is now historical in nature and the criticisms identified reflect processes and procedures which have not now been followed under the new operation..”