UK Asylum Decision Backlog Up 300 Per Cent in Four Years

Migrants picked up at sea while attempting to cross the English Channel from France, look
DANIEL LEAL/AFP via Getty Images
Kurt Zindulka

Britain’s Home Office has admitted that the number of migrants waiting for a decision on their asylum claims has increased by more than 300 per cent in the past four years, amid record waves of illegal immigration across the English Channel.

According to official government data, there were 109,735 migrants awaiting a decision on their asylum claim as of the end of March. The growing backlog is more than double that seen two years ago, and has more than quadrupled since March of 2018 when the number stood at 27,256 — meaning that the list has grown by 303 per cent.

Analysis from the PA news agency found that people claiming to be Iranians, at 14,003, represented the largest foreign group awaiting an initial asylum decision, with Albanians (12,740) and Iraqis (12,156) following.

People purporting to be Afghans (5,975) and Syrians (5,364) both represented five per cent of the total.

The number of migrants receiving taxpayer-funded support while their asylum claims are processed has risen by 39 per cent over the past two years, totalling 85,007 people, 95 per cent of whom were provided free housing.

The Home Office noted that the increase coincides with a long-term trend but that it was further exacerbated by the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, when the government extended financial support for those migrants who had their asylum claims either granted or denied.

The figures also revealed a marked failure of the government to deport failed asylum seekers, with just 0.6 per cent (75) migrants being sent back to European Union countries last year. Since leaving the bloc, the government has so far been unable to secure a deal with France, or the EU as a whole, as to the return of illegal migrants.

In lieu of such an agreement, the government has announced a plan to send illegal boat migrants to the East African nation of Rwanda, however, as of yet the government has not demonstrated that the plan will pass legal efforts to ground the planes.

Deportations of failed asylum seekers, illegal immigrants, and foreign criminals are vanishingly small in general, with the numbers now getting smaller every year.

Commenting on the reveal of its less than stellar performance in handling the migrant crisis, a Home Office spokesman claimed that the government was “working urgently” to expedite the asylum claim process.

“The government has delivered on its promise to the British people to take back control of our immigration system. As we move out of the pandemic, these statistics show our global points-based system is working,” they said, despite all evidence to the contrary as legal immigration and illegal immigration continue to rise and enforced removals of people with no right to be in the United Kingdom continue to fall.

“We have also helped thousands of people through our generous Safe and Legal routes including those fleeing Putin’s war in Ukraine, refugees from Afghanistan and our BN(O) Hong Kong route,” the spokesman added, bizarrely choosing to emphasise the ways in which it has helped to increase immigration.

The release of the Home Office figures follows a report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) which found that, despite longstanding promises from the ruling Conservative Party to cut immigration, the government has allowed immigration to top one million for the first time in recorded history.

The government has also been warned that as many as 100,000 illegal migrants may reach British shores after crossing the English Channel this year, with over 9,000 already successfully reaching the United Kingdom so far in 2022 — a new record for this time of the year.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka

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