Fast-track asylum scheme 'too slow The detained fast-track (DFT) scheme, which is used when officials decide that the circumstances of a person in detention are uncomplicated, is not living up to its name, a review found. John Vine, the independent chief inspector of the UK Border Agency, said it took longer than three months to remove those who had no right to stay in 38 per cent of the 114 cases reviewed. On average, decisions alone were taking 13 days to be made, despite the troubled agency's stated target of just three to four days. The delays in interviewing the asylum seekers added more than £100,000 to the cost of the scheme in the sample cases alone, the inspector added. Mr Vine, whose review of the UK Border Force led to Theresa May, the Home Secretary, ordering that it split from the Border Agency, said he was concerned that the success of the DFT scheme had not been assessed. Brought in eight years ago, when asylum applications were at record levels, it now makes a "sizeable contribution to the overall number of people removed" from the UK, Mr Vine said. But the screening process was not tailored to determine whether an asylum seeker was suitable for the scheme, he claimed. "While safeguards were in place once people had been detained, there remained a particular risk that the victims of torture or trafficking could be allocated to the DFT contrary to the agency's own policy," Mr Vine reported. In the cases sampled, only one person was granted asylum and 98 were refused, the report said. But overall, fewer than three quarters of people whose claims were refused were removed, despite the appeals process upholding 93 per cent of the Border Agency's decisions. An UKBA spokesman said: "We are allocating more staff to help speed up the processing of these cases."