EU migrants will stay in UK as Home Office cuts mean it will take 140 years to deport them

The new Prime Minister oversaw such savage cutbacks to her former department it is incapable of keeping track of the number of European migrants entering the country and organising their return, according to the Centre for European Reform (CER). And at current rates, it would take Britain 140  years to trace and deport all EU migrants, a separate study by the Migration Observatory revealed. The CER said trying to send EU workers back to the continent is "politically attractive" but "impractical, of dubious legality and against British interests". 

...CER researchers Camino Mortera-Martinez and John Springford said the "sheer bureaucratic effort required to identify and expel EU migrants" would make such a policy unenforceable.  European citizens arriving in the UK are currently not required to sign up to any sort of database, so the Government does not even know how long they have been in the country. The report also states that the Home Office is now woefully understaffed following six years of savage budget cuts, and has neither the personnel nor the money to create one. 

European citizens arriving in the UK are currently not required to sign up to any sort of database, so the Government does not even know how long they have been in the country. The report also states that the Home Office is now woefully understaffed following six years of savage budget cuts, and has neither the personnel nor the money to create one. They wrote: "By removing rights retroactively, the UK would make many EU workers either return home or continue to work illegally. Most would probably move to their home country or another EU member-state. But others would move into the black economy. They would not pay taxes, and they would be more likely to be exploited by employers."

Citing research by the independent Migration Observatory they argued that, because Britain does not have a database of EU nationals living in the country, the process of deportations would take around 140 years to complete. 

...But the CER exerts believe that, as the challenges of Brexit become clearer, the practicalities of trying to retrospectively track down the approximately three million EU citizens living in the UK.  They said: “For practical and political reasons, the UK may have to respect the rights of all people who move to the UK before the date of Brexit. 

"This will obviously cause domestic political problems for Theresa May. The absence of a pre-Brexit cut-off date would strengthen incentives for EU citizens to migrate before Britain formally withdraws." 

However, they added that there are other developing circumstances which could make Britain a less attractive proposition for EU citizens, who may decide to head to Germany and Scandinavia instead.  They wrote: "EU migration to the UK is likely to fall in any case, partly because the British economy is weakening, partly because the eurozone economy is improving, and partly because people will not want to move to a country with an atmosphere of hostility towards migrants."