Tory backlash over record asylum seeker backlog

More than 45,000 migrants crossed Channel to UK in 2022

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Senior Tories criticised the Home Office for failing to get a grip on the asylum system after the backlog hit record levels with more than 160,000 claims waiting to be dealt with. Albanians topped the list of applicants by nationality last year with 14,223 people trying to settle in the UK, with 9,573 of those arriving on small boats.

More than eight out of ten were adult men, according to figures released by the Home Office.

Around 89,000 people claimed asylum in 2022, which is the highest number in 19 years.

Conservative MP James Daly, who sits on the Home Affairs select committee, said the Home Office bureaucracy is “not fit for purpose and does not serve the public interest”.

He said that despite the number of caseworkers going up the number of decisions has gone down.

“Those who manage the asylum system within the Home Office must be held accountable for the fact that each worker is now less productive,” Mr Daly said.

The figures were released as plans to wipe 12,000 asylum seekers from the backlog by waving them through without face-to-face checks caused fury.

Conservative MP Sir Bill Wiggin said the government is not “taking back control” in the way that was promised by Brexit.

He added: “We need a better system for filtering the genuine and the secure from the people who are likely to pose a threat or break the law.”

Sir Bill said the country asylum seekers have left is not the only thing to consider when deciding if they are genuine.

He added: “It depends on what they say when they get here…I don’t think that the location of their departure is the only consideration.

“Coming from a country doesn’t make you an asylum seeker. It’s why you’re trying to escape from that country that matters.If you then decide to break the law, then my sympathy is much diminished,”

The number of asylum seekers waiting for a decision was up 60 percent from 100,564 for the same period in 2021.

Some 109,641 were waiting more than six months at the end of 2022, up 77 percent year-on-year.

Nine out of ten people arriving after crossing the Channel claimed asylum or were recorded as a dependent on an asylum application.

The figures come after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged to reduce the asylum backlog by the end of 2023 as he vowed to “stop the boats” crossing the Channel.

The Home Office has about 10 months to clear 92,601 initial asylum claims in the system at the end of June 2022.

As part of efforts to speed up the process and cut the soaring backlog, thousands of asylum seekers will now be sent 10-page questionnaires to fill out instead of facing an interview, amid warnings from officials their claim could be “withdrawn” if they do not reply with the required information.

The Home Office said the rising backlog was “due to more cases entering the asylum system than receiving initial decisions”.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer claimed the asylum system has been “broken by this Government”.

Marley Morris from the Institute for Public Policy Research said the latest backlog figures paint a “dire picture of the inadequacies in our asylum system”.

The Refugee Council branded the latest figures “alarming” and said people fleeing persecution are being left “in limbo” awaiting a decision.

The Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford described the scale of the challenge as a “major headache” for the Government.

Senior researcher Dr Peter Walsh said other countries have “routinely received similar or higher numbers of claims” but processing the applications has been “particularly slow in the UK”.

While there was no “single” explanation, factors included “low morale and high turnover” among Home Office case workers, the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic and additional measures introduced by the Government, he added.

Data obtained by the Observatory under freedom of information laws suggest the average waiting time by 2021 was more than 20 months.

A Home Office spokesman said: “Our priority is to stop the boats and ensure that people who come here illegally are detained and swiftly removed.

“We are working to speed up asylum processing so that people do not wait months or years in the backlog, at vast expense to the taxpayer, and to remove everyone who doesn’t have a legitimate reason to be here.

“To ensure our processes remain robust and all claims are properly considered, we have recruited hundreds of caseworkers to crack through cases.

“As part of these efforts to speed up the asylum process for high-grant nationalities, 12,000 asylum seekers who have made legacy asylum claims will be asked to provide details in a new Home Office questionnaire to help determine their case. If they do not reply, their asylum claim could be withdrawn.”

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