Asylum backlog reaches new record high
The UK’s asylum backlog has hit a new record high, with 80 per cent of people waiting longer than six months for an initial decision.
Home Office figures show a total of 175,457 people were waiting for an initial decision on an asylum application in the UK at the end of June 2023.
This is up 44 per cent from 122,213 at the end of June 2022 – the highest figure since current records began in 2010.
The number of asylum seekers waiting more than six months for an initial decision stood at 139,961 at the end of June, up 57 per cent year on year from 89,231 – which was another record high.
However, the number of cases awaiting a decision has risen by less than one per cent in the three months to the end of June, suggesting the rise is slowing down.
“This is 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 department added.
There were 23,702 initial decisions made on asylum applications in the UK in the year to June 2023, up 61 per cent on 14,730 in the year to June 2022.
It is also above the 20,766 decisions made in the pre-pandemic calendar year of 2019.
Just over seven in 10 – 71 per cent – of initial asylum decisions in the year to June 2023 were grants of refugee status, humanitarian protection or alternative forms of leave.
This is “substantially higher” than pre-pandemic, when around a third of initial decisions were grants, the Home Office said. The grant rate has been above 70 per cent since 2021.
Before then, the previous high was in 1990, when it stood at 82 per cent, although the volume of applications was much lower at that time.
Refugee Action called for the government to give asylum seekers leave to remain in the UK if they end up waiting more than a year for a decision on a claim.
Spokesperson Rachel Goodall said: “The backlog is a product of the government’s hostile environment and causes immense suffering to refugees who want to get on with their lives.
“It has forced thousands of people into inappropriate housing such as prison ships and MoD sites from which only private firms trousering millions in taxpayer-funded profits benefit.
Brightblue chief executive Ryan Shorthouse added: “With the number of asylum seekers entering the UK reaching record highs, the government must get a grip now to reduce the number of migrants making dangerous journeys.
“Detaining and deporting everyone who arrives irregularly is both unfair and unrealistic. We urgently need the government to adopt credible alternative approaches now”.
By Flora Thompson and Ian Jones, PA