The Home Office has been scolded for failing to "get a grip" on those overstaying their visas in Britain, following a staggering new report.

As Labour marks its first year in Government, it has been revealed that the Home Office is unaware of how many migrants might have overstayed their skilled worker visas.

According to The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which examines the value for money of Government projects, the Home Office has not analysed exit checks since the skilled worker visa route was introduced in 2020 under the Conservatives.

Speaking to GB News, Human Rights Lawyer David Haigh said although the findings are "not surprising", it is concerning as we "don't know who these people are".

David Haigh has hit out at the Home Office for failing to 'get a grip' of visa overstayers

Haigh explained: "It doesn't surprise me at all. It should surprise everyone, but it doesn't. They've got absolutely no grip on who is in the country and haven't had for a long time, and that's a really big problem.

"Obviously we see more people coming across the Channel today, that's insignificant compared to the number of people that are overstaying, not just work visas, tourist visas and student visas and their families, and we've got no clue who they are."

Citing Keir Starmer's recent "island of strangers" speech on immigration, Haigh warned that the nation could actually become the "island of the unknown".

He stated: "One of the small things that I've said time and time again is that when we travel to other countries, they check your passport when you come in and check your passport when you go out. We don't do that. We rely on this advanced passenger information, which clearly is lacking because the Home Office isn't even looking at it in this case.

Yvette Cooper told GB News of her latest crackdown on immigration

"This is a massive problem. And you saw Keir Starmer talking in his infamous speech about an island of strangers, this is more like the island of the unknown, because we just don't know who is here."

Criticising the visa system further, Haigh claimed that it is possibly the "easiest way to get in" to Britain, and is the "only Western country" that doesn't check travellers in and out of the country.

Haigh told GB News: "The Western countries and even countries like the Middle East, all of them check you when you go in and when you go out. And obviously, if you look at the UAE, Dubai, for example, as a city, we know a lot of British people go there.

"You're checked when you go in, you're checked when you go out, and if you overstay, you're in very big trouble. But we don't have that system, and it's not just skilled workers, students, tourists, that's the easy way for people to get in. If they can come in that way and want to overstay, they don't need to worry about coming across the Channel."

Haigh told GB News that 'nothing will be done' despite the study

Reacting to the "absurd" situation described by Haigh, host Nana Akua asked whether the Home Office workers should be given "performance based pay".

Haigh concluded: "I think there needs to be a better system than there is at the moment, and if someone is giving permits to people, someone needs to have the responsibility to make sure that that person has left at the end of the permit. So why isn't that part of the process?

"They just assume people have left, and of course, as we know, they're not leaving. But even after this study, nothing will be done, there'll be no changes."

A Home Office spokesman said in a statement: "This report affirms again that the previous Government's decision five years ago to relax visa controls on skilled workers helped to drive an unprecedented increase in the UK's level of net migration, with almost 1,000,000 people coming here in 2023."