Home Office approach to asylum system ‘could push people underground’ as backlog reaches record levels

The Home Office’s approach to the asylum system “could push people underground”, an expert has said, as the backlog once again hit record levels.

Government figures show a total of 175,457 people were waiting for an initial decision on an asylum application at the end of June, up 44% from 122,213 in June 2022. It’s the highest figure since current records began in 2010.

The number of asylum seekers waiting more than six months stood at 139,961 at the end of June, up 57% year on year from 89,231 and another record high. While Home Office spending on asylum has almost reached £4 billion, eight times the amount a decade ago.

The rise in initial decisions is “due to more cases entering the asylum system than receiving initial decisions”, the Home Office said. However, the number of cases waiting for a decision has risen by less than 1% 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 Home Office added.

However the Institute for Public Policy Research, is the UK's leading progressive think tank, said that the backlog is being driven down in large part by people withdrawing from the process, rather than substantive decisions. 

The number of withdrawal decisions has soared in the first half of the year, making up 47% of all initial asylum decisions, and has increased by a whopping 308% since June 2022.

IPPR said this risks pushing people underground and into the informal economy, while creating more work for the Home Office in the long run as people make fresh asylum claims. 

Marley Morris, the think tank’s associate director for migration, trade and communities, said: “The government is still far-off from getting on top of the asylum backlog. While the Home Office is bringing down the ‘legacy backlog’ of older cases, this is being offset by new applications from recent arrivals. 

“Moreover, many of the most recent decisions by the Home Office are withdrawals rather than grants or refusals. In the long run, this could backfire on the government, as people whose applications are withdrawn end up being pushed underground or make fresh asylum claims. 

“Once the government implements the Illegal Migration Act, this could make matters even worse. Even if the Rwanda scheme is ruled to be lawful by the Supreme Court, it is likely that the number of arrivals will outpace the number of removals, creating a growing ‘perma-backlog’ of asylum seekers trapped in limbo. This could cost the Home Office billions each year.”

The British Red Cross also said it was concerned about the increasing number of withdrawals, with Christina Marriott saying: “The reasons for this are unclear, but the government needs to urgently review its efforts to reduce the backlog and publish data on why vulnerable people’s claims are being withdrawn.”

She continued: “We’re deeply concerned that 175,457 men, women and children are stuck in the asylum backlog. Every day we see the toll this takes on their physical and mental health, as they wait for months or even years. 

“They’re often unable to work, separated from their families and in unsuitable accommodation, while waiting for a decision on their claim. With numbers increasing, there’s no time to waste. Claims must be processed more efficiently to help people settle into communities, start work and get on with their lives.”

NationalWorld has contacted the Home Office for comment.

Just over seven in 10 (71%) of initial decisions in the year to June 2023 were grants of refugee status, humanitarian protection or alternative forms of leave. This is “substantially higher” than in pre-pandemic years, when around a third of initial decisions were grants, the Home Office said.

While 90% of people arriving in the UK in the year to June 2023 after crossing the English Channel on small boats claimed asylum or were recorded as a dependant on an asylum application.

Some 345 people crossed the English Channel in six boats on Wednesday, at an average of 58 people per boat. This takes the number recorded over three days so far this week to 1,217 and the overall total for 2023 to date to 19,174.

Overall, just under half (46%) of the total number of people claiming asylum in the year to June had arrived on a small boat. And 74% of all small boat asylum applications since 2018 are still awaiting a decision.

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.

Rachel Goodall, the charity’s head of asylum services, said: “The huge backlog in asylum decision-making is a product of the government’s hostile environment and it is causing immense suffering to refugees who just want to get on with their lives.

“It has forced thousands of people into inappropriate housing such as former hotels, prison ships and MoD sites from which only the private firms trousering millions in taxpayer-funded profits benefit. Ministers must stop their cruel obsession with deterrence and focus on workable and rights-based solutions.

“This includes giving leave to remain to anyone who has waited more than 12 months for a decision on their claim, scrapping its inadmissibility policy and allowing people to work while they wait.”

While IPPR found that the number of refugees arriving through the UK’s resettlement schemes remained “incredibly low”. In the first half of the year, only 101 people were resettled through the different pathways of the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme, while during the same period, 1,474 Afghans were detected arriving in the UK on small boats.

The record-high asylum backlog amounts to a “disastrous record” for the Prime Minister and Home Secretary, Labour said.

“These new statistics set out in stark terms the complete chaos the Tories have created in the immigration and asylum system,” Shadow Immigration Minister Stephen Kinnock said.

“With this level of mismanagement, there is very little prospect of reducing the eye-wateringly high bill for hotel rooms for all those left in limbo, currently costing the British taxpayer £6 million a day.”

The Home Office's handling of the asylum crisis has fallen apart in recent weeks. The government's "Small Boats Week" backfired when asylum seekers had to be evacuated from the Bibby Stockholm barge, days after arriving, after Legionella bacteria was found on the boat.

The government also faced a series of legal challenges around its plans to house asylum seekers and the Illegal Migration Bill, which recently received royal assent. The main tenet of that policy - sending refugees to Rwanda - has been ruled unlawful by the High Court.

The High Court has also ruled that Braverman acted unlawfully by withholding payments of £3 a week to provide healthy food for children under four and pregnant women. And West Lindsey District Council, in Lincolnshire, recently won the right to a judicial review, which would determine whether the government can house migrants at RAF Scampton.

Plans to move 2,000 migrants into RAF Scampton were reportedly delayed until October, after delays in conducting surveys on the 14 buildings designated for migrant accommodation.