Sunak insists his ‘Stop the Boats’ pledge will lower ‘unacceptable’ asylum invoice
R
ishi Sunak warned the asylum system is beneath “unsustainable pressure” after the invoice for the taxpayer nearly doubled in a yr to almost £4 billion.
The Prime Minister, who has promised to “stop the boats” bringing migrants throughout the English Channel, stated the fee was “unacceptable”.
Home Office spending on asylum rose by £1.85 billion, from £2.12 billion in 2021/22 to £3.97 billion in 2022/23. A decade in the past, in 2012/13, the entire value to the taxpayer was £500.2 million.
Government statistics additionally confirmed that 80% of asylum seekers are ready longer than six months for an preliminary determination.
Home Office figures confirmed Channel crossings topped 19,000 for the yr to this point, regardless of Mr Sunak’s promise to voters that he’ll cease the boats.
Mr Sunak has additionally pledged by the tip of 2023 to clear the backlog of round 92,601 so-called “legacy” circumstances which had been within the system as of the tip of June final yr.
But within the six months since Mr Sunak made his promise, the determine decreased by simply lower than 1 / 4 (23%).
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.”
Overall, a complete of 175,457 folks have been ready for an preliminary determination on an asylum utility within the UK on the finish of June 2023, up 44% from 122,213 for a similar interval a yr earlier – the best determine since present information started in 2010.
Of these, 139,961 had been ready longer than six months for an preliminary determination, up 57% yr on yr from 89,231 and one other file excessive.
Labour stated the record-high asylum backlog quantities to a “disastrous record” for Mr Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman, whereas campaigners known as for claims to be processed extra effectively.
By the tip of 2023, the Prime Minister has pledged to clear the backlog of 92,601 so-called “legacy” circumstances which had been within the system as of the tip of June final yr.
In the six months since Mr Sunak made his promise, the determine decreased by lower than 1 / 4 (23%), with 67,870 legacy asylum circumstances awaiting a choice as of June 30 2023.
The Home Office insisted the Government is “on track” to clear the legacy backlog by the tip of the yr and stated progress has been made since June, citing provisional figures to the tip of July which indicated the entire backlog of circumstances had fallen.
Mr Sunak stated: “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.”
Peter Walsh, senior researcher on the Migration Observatory on the University of Oxford, stated: “The backlog remains stubbornly high, despite falling numbers of asylum claims and more asylum caseworkers in the Home Office.
“It’s becoming harder to see how the Government can meet its pledge to eliminate the so-called ‘legacy backlog’ of older claims by the end of the year, as the rate of decision-making would have to be more than doubled.”
Amnesty International UK stated it was “utterly disgraceful that new asylum laws are being introduced to actually prevent the processing of claims altogether, which will make this backlog, its cost and the limbo it imposes on people even worse”.
The Home Office stated the rise within the asylum backlog is “due to more cases entering the asylum system than receiving initial decisions”.
But the variety of circumstances ready to be handled elevated by lower than 1% within the three months to the tip of June, suggesting the rise is slowing down.
This was “in part due to an increase in the number of initial decisions made, and an increase in the number of asylum decision-makers employed”, the division added.
Small boat arrivals accounted for fewer than half (46%) of the entire variety of folks claiming asylum within the UK within the interval.