The Home Office is seeking to double the rate at which it deports failed asylum seekers from Scotland – in a drive to clear a backlog of cases. The immigration service is pursuing a target of removing 10 people every week after staffing problems led to it achieving only half that rate last year, it was disclosed yesterday.

{mosimage} The target was condemned as uncompassionate and arbitrary by refugee groups. However, in a parallel development, the head of the new Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) indicated its officers were willing to consider the length of time people stayed in Scotland as a factor in deciding whether they should be allowed to remain.

The move appeared to be a concession to Hugh Henry, the Scottish education minister, who last month said he would urge the Home Office to consider that many asylum seeker children are positively integrated into local schools and communities.

He said he wanted this to be taken into account as part of a “sensible and pragmatic” approach to a review of some 1100 “legacy cases” in Scotland.

Lin Homer, BIA’s chief executive, was speaking as she visited the Glasgow offices of the newly-devolved Home Office agency which officially took over from the old Immigration and Nationality Directorate yesterday. She said the review of legacy cases, those decided before the introduction of a new fast-track asylum system last month, would consider a range of factors in deciding whether people could remain in the country on a case-by-case basis.

Police yesterday revealed details of the largest-ever cannabis factory uncovered in Scotland. In an unprecedented operation, an organised crime gang was alleged to be cultivating vast quantities of the drug with a street value of £1.2m.