UK: Year on from mass drowning new statistics show asylum system in 'complete disarray'

Latest Home Office figures show large increase in backlog of asylum applications

Call for ‘complete overhaul’ of asylum policy and abandonment of Rwanda deal

‘The totally unacceptable asylum backlog is the inevitable result of Government policy’ - Steve Valdez-Symonds

New Government statistics published today show another staggering increase in the number of people waiting for more than six months for an initial decision on their asylum claims.

The figures, providing an update to September this year, show that the number of outstanding asylum claims awaiting a decision for more than six months now stands at 79,314 compared to 72,597 three months earlier. The total number of asylum claims awaiting a decision stands at 121,307 (which includes 3,907 fresh claims made with new information following a refusal of asylum).

The update to the Home Office’s immigration figures - which provide information on the UK’s immigration system, including people coming to the UK, those applying for asylum, and those who are detained or removed - shows that more than 30,000 Afghan, Eritrean, Iranian, Sudanese and Syrian people are currently waiting for the Home Office to decide their asylum claim in the UK.

Other key findings for the year ending September 2022 include:

The UK offered protection, in the form of asylum, humanitarian protection and alternative forms of leave and resettlement to 17,378 people (including dependants). Of these:

• 14,773 were granted refugee status following an asylum application
• 956 were granted humanitarian protection (also following an asylum application)
• 1,391 were granted refugee status through resettlement schemes

Another 4,786 people were granted a visa to join their refugee partner or parent, who had been granted protection in the UK following their own asylum claim.

Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International UK’s Refugee and Migrant Rights Director, said:

“On the anniversary of the tragic mass drownings in the Channel, these figures show the UK’s system for processing asylum claims remains in complete disarray.

“The totally unacceptable asylum backlog is the inevitable result of Government policy that has expended huge resources and money on the disastrous Rwanda deal and other damaging distractions from the main job at hand – simply dealing with people’s claims as fairly and efficiently as possible.

“More than 30,000 Afghan, Eritrean, Iranian, Sudanese and Syrian nationals are among people waiting for more than six months for the Home Office to decide their asylum claim, with some stuck in this bureaucratic limbo for years. 

“The Home Secretary needs to completely overhaul her disastrous asylum policy, cancel the Rwanda deal, put in place safe routes so desperate people don’t need to risk their lives making utterly perilous Channel crossings and focus on dealing with rather than trying to avoid the claims people make.”