Home Office 'chaos' leaves 55,500 asylum seekers stuck in permanent backlog, experts say

More than 55,000 asylum seekers are stuck in a permanent backlog, experts have warned, which is set to cost taxpayers an increasingly large sum of money.

Migrants who arrived through small boats and other irregular means after 20 July 2023 cannot have their claims processed by the Home Office due to the Illegal Migration Act. The government wants to send them to Rwanda, however that plan has been mired in legal battles after being declared unlawful by the Supreme Court.

All the while, the Institute for Public Policy Research says tens of thousands of asylum seekers are stuck in temporary accommodation, such as hostels or hotels, unable to work, and cannot have their claims processed or sent to east Africa. This group, which IPPR has said is in a “perma-backlog”, is increasingly costing the taxpayer more and more.

While the government claims the deportation scheme does not have a limit, the think tank says “it is highly doubtful the small country of Rwanda will ever be able to accept tens of thousands of people”. This means 55,500 people are stuck in limbo, and the number will only grow. The IPPR urged the government to start processing so asylum seekers can either get leave to remain and start working, or be removed back to their home country. 

Marley Morris, associate director for migration at the think tank, said: “Chaos in the Home Office has led to tens of thousands of asylum seekers stuck in a perma-backlog, unable to get on with their lives and costing the taxpayer millions. This was an entirely predictable outcome of the Illegal Migration Act. The only way to escape this situation is for the Home Office to start processing claims.”

While Labour said that this showed “the complete and utter chaos” the Tories have created in the Home Office. Shadow Immigration Minister Stephen Kinnock told NationalWorld: “The fact that the Conservatives have simply replaced one asylum backlog with another, at an enormous cost to the British taxpayer, only goes to illustrate the complete and utter chaos they have created in the asylum system.

"The Tories have already pledged to give £400 million to the Rwandan government without a single person being flown there, and wider removals have collapsed by 34 per cent since 2010.

"It’s time the government stopped wasting taxpayers’ money. They should instead deliver Labour's plan to end the crossings by smashing the criminal smuggler gangs upstream through a new cross-border police force, and to clear the backlog through faster processing and a new returns unit to speed up the safe country removals of those who fail in their asylum claims.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We met the Prime Minister's pledge to clear the legacy backlog of asylum cases made before 28 June 2022 and all of those cases have been reviewed. Now we are working through the next cohort of applications.

“We are beginning to implement measures in the Illegal Migration Act following the Supreme Court's judgement on Rwanda and alongside the Safety of Rwanda Bill going through Parliament, delivering against this government’s priority of tackling illegal migration.”

Sunak has made tackling illegal migration the cornerstone of his premiership. He has promised to get flights off the ground to Rwanda in the spring, which he hopes will be a deterrent to illegal migrants. Critics say it won’t achieve this, and point to the east African country’s debatable human rights record. 

On 1 January, the Home Office said that the government had cleared the legacy backlog, meeting one of Sunak’s commitments. However official figures showed that more than 4,500 so-called legacy cases were still awaiting an initial decision at the time. On top of this, around 17,000 cases have been withdrawn - yet Home Office permanent secretary Matthew Rycroft admitted last year that the department doesn't know what has happened to these people or where they are. 

Ralph Blackburn is NationalWorld’s politics editor based in Westminster, where he gets special access to Parliament, MPs and government briefings. If you liked this article you can follow Ralph on X (Twitter) here and sign up to his free weekly newsletter Politics Uncovered, which brings you the latest analysis and gossip from Westminster every Sunday morning.