Asylum case backlog in UK rises to document ranges prompting fury over figures

Rishi Sunak is floundering in his pledge to sort out the asylum backlog, as new figures present instances awaiting a choice have risen for yet one more 12 months.

The variety of candidates awaiting an preliminary resolution rose to 134,046 within the 12 months to June 2023, up from 133,607 in March.

The Prime Minister has set a goal of clearing the so-called legacy backlog of asylum functions lodged earlier than June 2022.

On this he’s making progress, albeit slower than required.

The legacy backlog fell from 90,659 in June 2022 to 67,870 in June 2023.

While this fall appears to be like respectable, the Home Office must treble the variety of selections it’s taking each three months to hit Mr Sunak’s goal.

The Government nonetheless believes it’s on its method to hitting this goal by the tip of 2023, after having doubled the variety of caseworkers and promising to double the quantity once more to 2,500 by the autumn of this 12 months.

In March 2023, every caseworker carried out on common seven substantive interviews or made preliminary selections on instances per 30 days in comparison with simply 4 in December 2022.

The legacy backlog progress can also be being eroded by new entries resulting in the general improve in these awaiting selections.

In whole, 175,457 folks had been ready for a choice, a 44 p.c rise from the 122,213 a 12 months prior.

This is now the best determine since present data started in 2010.

Earlier this week, the Institute for Public Policy Research stated Britain faces a “perma-backlog” of asylum seekers be the time of the subsequent election, with housing prices for migrants anticipated to soar to over £5 billion a 12 months.

Labour’s shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock stated a Labour authorities would “scrap the unworkable, unaffordable and unethical Rwanda plan and use that money to fund the National Crime Agency properly so they can work more effectively with Europol and Interpol”.

“We would clear the backlog by upgrading the seniority of the caseworkers and decision makers in the Home Office, and by triaging so you have high grant rate countries and low grant rate countries being processed much more quickly.”

Speaking on GB News this morning, Amnesty International’s Steve Valdez-Symonds stated: “The single biggest reason why the asylum backlog keeps going up is because ministers have instituted a policy of attempting simply not to determine people’s claims”.

“They have only this year gone to the extent of passing a law that will into the future require them not to determine people’s claims, and if you keep doing this your backlog will get bigger.”

However Labour can also be counting on a brand new returns take care of the EU, one thing Brussels just lately advised Britain isn’t going to occur.

Responding to this morning’s figures, the Home Office stated: “The government’s focus is clear – we must stop the boats and prevent the unacceptable number of people risking their lives by making these dangerous and illegal crossings, which continue to place an unprecedented strain on our asylum system”.

“We’ve transformed our immigration system to work in our best interests by encouraging the best and brightest to come to the UK, to support the growth of the economy and boost prosperity, and we remain absolutely committed to reducing levels of immigration into this country.”