British ministry mixes up data on 76,000 immigrants due to database error

The Home Office, the British Ministry of the Interior, has carelessly handled the data of more than 76,000 immigrants. These have, among other things, been registered under the wrong names and photos of immigrants have been mixed up.

Due to the Home Office's error, those affected cannot apply for housing and are not eligible for housing or treatment at the National Health Service, The Guardian wrote on Thursday based on leaked documents. This is because identities have been merged in the Home Office system. This means that the biographical and biometric data of two or more people are linked to each other.

This often involved data from immigrants who, according to The Guardian, were 'completely unrelated'. The newspaper has spoken to a number of those affected. A man from Nicaragua is said to have called the Home Office more than a hundred times to prove to his employers that he had a work permit. Another refugee repeatedly saw a stranger's photo ID when she logged into her account.

While the ministry has acknowledged the “IT issues” in the past, it has shared little about the scale of the problems. In February, Home Secretary Tom Pursglove told parliament that “no systemic problems” had been identified with Atlas, the tool used by immigration officials and which operates on the flawed database. However, the leaked documents detail how many people have been affected by the error and the attempts the Home Office has made to resolve the 'long-standing issues'.

Internal documents show that the ministry has launched a tool has developed to identify potential merged identities. To date, more than 38,000 problems have been identified, each affecting at least two people. A Home Office spokesperson said the problems affected an estimated 0.02 percent of people in the database.