These conclusions follow revelations this morning about the high numbers of foreign prisoners going missing, who were set to be deported.

Keith Vaz, the Labour MP who chairs the committee said that the UKBA is “not fit for purpose”.

"The foreign national prisoner issue and the asylum backlog were scandals which first broke in 2006, six years ago.

"They spent £9.1m on iris scanners at airports. They've now decided after five years that they don't really work and therefore they are going to be removed. That £9.1m could have been spent on having immigration officers and case workers that would have cleared the backlog that this committee has been talking about for the last five years.”

The current border agency was set up in 2008, to replace the system that was derided by former Home Secretary John Reid in 2006.

Since then, the new report suggests, the UKBA has struggled to deal with the backlog of approximately 450,000 asylum and immigration cases which emerged in 2006. There are approximately 118,000 cases where individuals cannot be located, and around 50 of those are believed to be prisoners.

Immigration minister Damian Green said "past mistakes" were being dealt with.