THE GUARDIAN: Better border controls needed, but no annual cap / Woolas pledges to clear asylum case backlog
Phil Woolas, the new immigration minister, yesterday admitted the government had lost the trust of people over immigration because they did not know who was leaving and coming into the country.
He also suggested that some multi-cultural policies had the effect of "leaving communities isolated from one another to the mutual dissatisfaction of everyone".
Speaking at an event with the Dutch justice minister Nebahat Albayrak, he said his main political goal was to try to replicate the debate held in the Netherlands over the proper role of migration.
A matter of days into his new role, Woolas took personal responsibility for clearing the backlog of asylum cases.
He said: "Our failure to resource the asylum processes has caused untold human misery and division within our communities.
"My attitude to this issue is I am going to clear the backlog because it is the right thing to do morally for asylum seekers and the right thing to do for the country as a whole. >>> Patrick Wintour, Political Editor | October 21, 2008
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