Rishi Sunak insists greatest option to slash £4bn asylum invoice is to ‘cease the boats’

Rishi Sunak has insisted the easiest way of slashing the “unacceptable” £4billion-a-year asylum invoice is to “stop the boats in the first place”.

But he admitted that the Government has extra to do to scale back the “vast expense” to taxpayers.

The price of the asylum system ballooned to £3.96billion from £2.11billion in a 12 months as the entire of migrants ready for a choice rose to a file excessive. Tory MPs final night time mentioned the immigration system is “not fit for purpose” and urged “root and branch reform”.

But the Prime Minister instructed the Daily Express: “The best way to relieve the unsustainable pressures on our asylum system and unacceptable costs to the taxpayer is to stop the boats in the first place.

“That’s why we are focused on our plan to break the business model of the people smugglers facilitating these journeys, including working with international partners upstream to disrupt their efforts, stepping up joint work with the French to help reduce crossings and tackling the asylum backlog.

“We’ve already reduced the legacy backlog by over 28,000 – nearly a third – since the start of December and we remain on track to meet our target.

“But we know there is more to do to make sure asylum seekers do not spend months or years – living in the UK at vast expense to the taxpayer – waiting for a decision.”

Mr Sunak added: “That’s why we’ve doubled the number of caseworkers over the last two years and continue to recruit more, and we are streamlining and modernising the end-to-end process with improved guidance, more focused interviews and rolling out the use of digital technology.”

The Home Office spent £3.97billion on the asylum system in 2022/23, up from £2.12billion in a 12 months. A decade in the past the associated fee to taxpayers was £500.2million.

Around £2.3billion a 12 months is being spent on lodge rooms for 51,000 migrants. Some 175,457 individuals have been ready on an preliminary determination on an asylum utility on the finish of June – up 44% from 122,213 a 12 months earlier and the very best determine since 1999.

Then, Tony Blair’s authorities confronted a backlog of 125,100. Of migrants hoping for refugee standing, 139,961 had been ready longer than six months for an preliminary determination, up 57 p.c 12 months on 12 months and one other file excessive.

The Home Office mentioned the rise within the asylum backlog is “due to more cases entering the asylum system than receiving initial decisions”.

New asylum purposes within the 12 months to the top of June have been additionally at a 20-year excessive of 78,768. Channel migrants made up round 41 p.c of all asylum claims. But circumstances ready to be handled rose by lower than 1 p.c in the identical three months, suggesting that the rise is slowing down.

Labour yesterday mentioned the system was in “complete chaos”, claiming that only one p.c of Channel migrants who arrived final 12 months had acquired an asylum determination. But immigration minister Robert Jenrick alleged Sir Keir Starmer’s plan was “simply to wave illegal migrants through the system faster”.

He added: “Small boats numbers are 15 percent down on last year, against a backdrop of rising numbers of illegal migrants elsewhere in Europe. We are also on track to reduce the legacy backlog of asylum claims.”

Mr Jenrick claimed that Labour’s strategy was “a recipe for even more illegal, dangerous and unnecessary crossings.

“We are getting on with tackling the source of the problem by deterring young men from ever leaving the safety of France in a flimsy dinghy. We’ve passed the toughest piece of immigration legislation in decades, increased returns to the highest level since the pandemic and surged raids on illegal employers by 50%.”

A complete of 19,174 asylum seekers in 405 boats have reached the UK by way of the Channel this 12 months. Another 300 in six boats have been intercepted by Border Force employees yesterday and brought into Dover harbour. They included youngsters plus a toddler in a pink-and-black coat.

The PM has vowed to clear the backlog of 92,601 “legacy” circumstances – these which have been within the system since June 2022 – by the top of this 12 months. Some 67,870 such purposes have been awaiting a choice on June 30 so employees want to contemplate 11,300 circumstances every month.

Legacy circumstances fell by 11,084 from the top of March to the top of June – practically 3,700 cleared per 30 days. Some Tory MPs consider that highlights how damaged the system is.

Dover MP Natalie Elphicke mentioned: “This is a shocking waste of our hard-earned money. The asylum system is not working for British taxpayers and costs far too much. There needs to be root and branch reform to deliver a better deal.”

Tim Loughton MP, of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee mentioned: “The immigration system is still not fit for purpose.The Home Office has got to do a heck of a lot better in improving processing and turnaround times.”

Britain has signed a £480million take care of Paris to spice up patrols on French seashores and to extend the variety of drones scanning for would-be migrants hiding in dunes.

The Government can also be searching for extra cooperation on smuggling routes with international locations like Turkey, Italy, Tunisia, Albania and Libya.

Tony Smith, an ex-director common of Border Force, advised Britain and France ought to collectively patrol the Channel and return migrants to France. He mentioned: “There is provision in international law to do that. But the deal would have to be that the migrants would be taken directly back to Calais.

“Then of course they wouldn’t get into the UK asylum system. That’s where the blockage has been. The French position is that this is an EU-wide issue. Those on board are not seeking rescue, because then they’ll be taken back to France.

“So there is evidence that people are resisting rescue until such a time as they reach our waters and of course we are duty bound to rescue them.

“Once they’re on board a British vessel they will claim asylum and that’s been the business model for some time now.” Enver Solomon, chief govt of the Refugee Council, mentioned: “Taking further urgent action to reduce the backlog would not only improve people’s lives, it would also make financial sense.

“Granting asylum to those from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iran, Syria and Sudan would save the Government millions of pounds a day, as it would end hotel use by 77 percent.”