Cooper: Fast-track scheme to tackle asylum backlog coming

The Home Secretary plans to introduce a fast-track scheme to tackle the asylum backlog that aims to turn around decisions within weeks.

Yvette Cooper said Labour was planning a “major overhaul” of the appeal process in the hope it would help to make a significant dent in the numbers.

“We need a major overhaul of the appeal [process] and that’s what we are going to do in the autumn… If we speed up the decision-making appeal system and also then keep increasing returns, we hope to be able to make quite a big reduction in the overall numbers in the asylum system, because that is the best way to actually restore order and control,” Ms Cooper told The Sunday Times.

The aim would be to compress the process so decisions and returns could happen “within weeks”, the newspaper reported, citing a source familiar with the plans.

Appeals

The UK Government faces pressure to cut how many asylum seekers are housed in hotels while awaiting the outcome of a claim or appeal.

The Home Secretary has previously said she was eager to put a fast-track system for decisions and appeals in place so that people from countries considered safe would not sit in the asylum system for a long time.

“We should be able to take those decisions really fast, be able to take those decisions, make sure that they go through the appeals system really fast and then also make sure they are returned really quickly as well,” she told the Home Affairs committee in June.

“That would mean a fast-track system alongside the main asylum system, I think that would be really important in terms of making sure that the system is fair.

“That will require legislation in order to be able to do that, as well as a new system design.”

Channel crossings

The UK Government is also seeking to reduce the number of Channel crossings.

More than 25,000 migrants have arrived in small boats this year so far.

Tensions over asylum hotels have flared up in recent weeks, with a protest and counter-protest taking place on Saturday outside the Thistle City Barbican Hotel in north London, and also in Newcastle.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has pledged to end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers by the end of this Parliament.

Asylum seekers and their families are housed in temporary accommodation if they are waiting for the outcome of a claim or an appeal and have been assessed as not being able to support themselves independently.

They are housed in hotels if there is not enough space in accommodation provided by local authorities or other organisations.