Previous UK government left asylum system in ‘meltdown’ – campaigners

The last government left an asylum system in “meltdown”, campaigners claimed as figures showed the backlog had started to creep back up after dropping by almost a third.

Home Office figures show a total of 118,882 people were waiting for an initial decision on an asylum application in the UK at the end of June 2024, down by 32% from 175,457 at the end of June 2023, which was the highest figure since current records began in 2010.

But the latest total is up slightly from the 118,329 waiting to be dealt with at the end of March this year, indicating a rise in the last three months of the 12-month period.

The number of asylum seekers waiting more than six months for an initial decision stood at 76,268 at the end of June, down 46% from the record 139,961 at the end of June 2023.

Imran Hussain, from the Refugee Council, said the last government “left an asylum system in meltdown as a result of the Rwanda plan and the Illegal Migration Act, which effectively banned asylum in the UK”.

Chaos

The “chaos” meant the “productivity of Home Office decision makers in the months before the election was at its lowest since the height of the Covid pandemic”, he said, warning it will “take time to move the system from a state of crisis to being fit for purpose”.

Marley Morris, from think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), said the figures show the backlog had “barely changed” in the last few months while ministers were “distracted” by efforts to send migrants to Rwanda in a bid to deter Channel crossings, while academics said asylum processing had stagnated.

Peter Walsh, senior researcher at the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory, said: “Until earlier this year, the Government was still working through applications that weren’t affected by the Illegal Migration Act, which meant it was able to progressively reduce the backlog.

“However, it seems that the new legislation started to bite in the spring, when the Home Office ran out of older cases to process. In theory, the previous government did have some discretion to continue to process claims (as Labour says it is now doing) but it appears to have decided not to use it.”

Returns

But shadow home secretary James Cleverly, who is running to be the leader of the Conservative Party, insisted the figures showed measures put in place when he was in office are taking effect.

“The extra resource I put into the system meant more decisions, cutting the backlog, lower grant rate, and more returns,” he said.

A total of 67,978 people were granted refugee status or other leave to remain in the UK in the year to June 2024, more than three times the 21,436 in the previous 12 months.

Just under three-fifths (58%) of the initial decisions in the year ending June 2024 were grants of refugee status, humanitarian protection or alternative forms of leave.

This is lower than the previous 12 months (71%), but higher than in the years immediately before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Nearly all (99%) of people arriving in the UK in the year to June 2024 after crossing the Channel claimed asylum or were recorded as a dependant on an asylum application, the Home Office said.

Overall, just under a third (31%) of the total number of people claiming asylum in the UK in the year to June had arrived on a small boat.

Steve Valdez-Symonds, from Amnesty International UK, claimed the figures showed “nearly everyone seeking asylum must rely on unsafe journeys and people-smugglers because the Government won’t provide safe alternatives”.

Most people seeking sanctuary in the UK “are judged to be entitled to asylum if and when their claims are properly decided, but the system’s still suffering the chronic impact of the previous government’s disastrous refusal to process claims”, he said.

Older applicants

The figures also showed hundreds of older applications were still waiting to be dealt with, despite former prime minister Rishi Sunak setting the Home Office a target to clear that section of the backlog by the end of 2023.

There were 1,891 asylum applications in the so-called “legacy” backlog that were still awaiting an initial decision at the end of June 2024.

Asylum applications made before June 28, 2022 were counted as legacy cases by the previous Conservative government when Mr Sunak set his target.

The number of asylum applications being withdrawn had risen again, with the majority being removed from the backlog by the Home Office.

Some 21,425 applications, for 23,246 people, were withdrawn in the year to June 2024, up from 14,789 applications for 15,857 people in the previous 12 months.

Of these, 76% were classed as “implicit withdrawals”, meaning the Home Office decided to withdraw the application rather than the applicant choosing to pull out of the process. The proportion is down slightly from 78% in the year to June 2023.

Implicit withdrawals are made in instances including when an applicant has not attended an interview, has failed to complete a questionnaire by a particular date, or has not provided up-to-date contact information.