UK immigration minister shifted: Sex for asylum scam

LONDON: Britain's Immigration Minister Tony McNulty has been shifted following the 'sex-for-asylum' scandal in the department and release of more than 1,000 foreign prisoners without being considered for deportation.

McNulty will swap jobs with Policing and Security Minister Liam Byrne. Home Secretary John Reid said on Monday night that McNulty, a former government whip, would concentrate on the police as well as home office issues in Parliament.

He said Byrne would now be responsible for immigration, asylum and citizenship, as well as delivery right across the department.

Reid appeared before the home affairs select committee on Tuesday morning to answer queries about the foreign prisoner scandal and the overall crisis in the Home Office.

According to sources, he updated MPs on the number of wrongly released foreign prisoners still at large.    Figures released in a parliamentary answer show that in the past ten years 13,500 prisoners have escaped, absconded or disappeared while on temporary release.