Asylum-seeker backlog passes 150,000 mark as upkeep bill hits £2.1bn a year

Number has increased by 50,000 in just 12 months to hit record, government figures to show, increasing pressure on Rishi Sunak to do more

migrants
A group of migrants are brought Into Dover by a Border Force boat on Tuesday Credit: STEVE FINN

The asylum backlog has hit the highest level since records began, the Government is braced to announce this week.

Rishi Sunak is facing an asylum crisis with the number of outstanding claimants passing 150,000 for the first time in more than 20 years, driven by a surge in migrants crossing the Channel in small boats.

Home Office data, to be published on Thursday, is set to show that the backlog has increased by 50,000 in just 12 months from 100,564 in the year ending December 2021.

It means taxpayers face a record £2.1 billion bill for asylum seekers’ accommodation, subsistence and other associated costs. Up to £7 million a day is being spent on housing some 40,000 in hotels.

The previous peak was during the Tony Blair-era asylum crisis at the turn of the millennium, when comparable records began.

The figures will intensify pressure on the Prime Minister, and Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, to stop the small boat crossings with nearly 90,000 migrants reaching the UK since 2018, and to cut the asylum backlog.

Mr Sunak has declared the issue one of his top priorities, and is expected next month to unveil proposed new laws to bar anyone entering the UK illegally from claiming asylum.

He has pledged to clear the backlog of 92,601 asylum cases submitted before June 2022 by the end of this year by quadrupling the number of asylum caseworkers to more than 2,000 and boosting staff productivity.

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Migrant crossings have continued this year Credit: itSTEVE FINN

Lord Blunkett, the former Labour home secretary, blamed the backlog on the productivity of asylum staff “absolutely plummeting” so that each worker on average processed just one case a week.

“As John Reid said back in 2006, despite valiant efforts, the system was still not ‘fit for purpose’, but no one could have perceived the staggering situation that has arisen now,” he said.

Alp Mehmet, chairman of Migration Watch UK, said: “The ballooning of the backlog is inevitable. With the rate of illegal Channel crossings already greater than it was in 2022 and the level of returns minimal, the numbers crossing will go on increasing.

“The only solution is to stop the illegal influx. What the Government must not do is reduce the backlog by effectively declaring an amnesty in all but name. That would prove disastrous.”

Dr Peter Walsh, senior researcher at Oxford University’s Migration Observatory, said: "The asylum backlog has increased five-fold in the last four years. The result of this is that asylum seekers are now facing very long waits - on average, more than 18 months - for their claims to be assessed.”

The Refugee Council said it was now likely up to 50,000 asylum seekers were waiting between one and three years for decisions and more than 10,000 three to five years.

“These are men women and children who came to our country in search of safety but are condemned to years of waiting and worrying, unable to put down roots and rebuild their lives,” said Enver Solomon, its chief executive.

The backlog of asylum applications - which is a separate measure to the number of applicants, as there can be multiple applicants on each application - hit a record 125,100 in 1999, before which there are no comparable figures. There is no data from 1999 relating to the number of applicants.

Sources suggested it was “likely” the backlog of applications for the year to December 2022 would smash the 125,100 record. The backlog stood at 117,000 in September last year, since when more than 12,700 migrants have reached the UK across the Channel. This means the number of applicants is likely to be a similar record.

Despite a 62 per cent increase in caseworkers from 2011/12 to 2021/22, decision-making rates decreased by the same amount in this period.

In 2021/22, there were 614 caseworkers who made an average of five asylum decisions per month per staff member, compared with 380 caseworkers with a productivity rate of 13.7 decisions in 2011/12. On average staff have been processing around 18,000 applications a year.

This means it will require a five-fold improvement in productivity to hit Mr Sunak’s target of clearing the 92,061 legacy-case asylum claims submitted by June 2022, when new rules were introduced through the Nationality and Borders Act.

A Home Office spokesman said: “The Government is taking immediate action to bring the asylum backlog down and has set out new plans to clear the initial asylum decision backlog of legacy cases by the end of this year.

“We have doubled the number of asylum caseworkers to more than 1,000 and we will double it again while rolling out a successful pilot scheme nationwide to boost the number of claims processed."

Meanwhile, David Neal, chief inspector of borders and immigration, on Tuesday criticised the Home Office for its “deteriorating performance” which meant the backlog of applicants for family reunion stood at almost 8,000. They were consistently double the standard expected of 60 days.

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