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Rishi Sunak has been accused of attempting to “cook the books” after he claimed to have cleared the asylum backlog despite nearly 100,000 migrants still waiting for a decision.
The government initially said it had cleared all so-called legacy asylum claims – counted as those submitted before June 2022 – but figures published on Tuesday confirmed that 4,500 of these cases are outstanding.
The prime minister then went on to claim that all claims had been issued with a decision. But data released by the Home Office on Tuesday showed a total of 98,599 asylum claims languishing in the system – with ministers admitting it is “impossible” to put a date on clearing the overall backlog.
Shadow immigration minister Steven Kinnock accused the PM of promoting a “barefaced lie” that was “an insult to the public’s intelligence”.
Politicians and charities also criticised the government for withdrawing some 17,000 asylum claims, with the Refugee Council saying the Home Office had “lost track” of the failed asylum seekers.
The new figures show the government made 35,000 “non-substantive” decisions in 2023 – up from 13,093 in 2022 – which includes applications that are withdrawn, void or paused and therefore removed from the official backlog.
Applications can be withdrawn for reasons such as failing to attend interviews or appointments, and not filling in new “fast-track” questionnaires. This can happen without the asylum seeker’s consent – even if it has been unable to contact them and does not know where they are.
Rishi Sunak was accused of ‘lying’ about asylum figures
(PA)
Labour’s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper hit out at the Home Office for having “no idea where those people are”.
Enver Solomon, CEO of the Refugee Council, said the Home Office had “lost track of too many people who have been removed from the asylum process… at risk of sleeping rough during the winter months.”
And MP Scott Benton, who had the Tory whip removed over a lobbying scandal, wrote on X: “Having a de facto amnesty where you simply approve the majority of applications as ‘genuine’, and 17,000 people running off never to be seen again, does not count as reducing the asylum backlog.”
Mr Sunak pledged to clear around 92,000 asylum claims by the end of last year as part of a five-point plan to grip the migrant crisis. Decisions have been made in 86,800 cases with reviews ongoing in the remaining 4,500.
Mr Cleverly defended the remaining cases, saying they were complex and that it was fair to count them as cleared because they are being looked at. But he added that it was “impossible” to say how long they would take to process.
Asked why a press release issued by the government said Mr Sunak’s target on legacy cases had been met, Cleverly responded: “It has.”
Lee Anderson grills Home Office bosses over ‘staggering’ failure to give asylum figures
The home secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the PM’s commitment had been to “make sure we process” the 92,000 legacy claims.
“Every single one of those applications has been processed. In the vast majority, a final adjudication has been made. In a small number – about 4,500 where there are discrepancies, where there are further checks, additional work needs to be done.”
But Mr Cleverly and the government were criticised over claims they had massaged the figures.
Even Twitter weighed in on the debate – with an “added context” note put onto Mr Sunak’s tweet about the “cleared backlog”, which said: “The backlog has not been cleared”.
As the row deepened, charities accused the government of operating a “smoke and mirrors policy” of withdrawing claims to artificially shrink the backlog. Home Office officials have previously admitted that they don’t know the whereabouts of these asylum seekers.
CEO of Care4Calais, Steve Smith, said the government was attempting to “cook the books”. He said: “They decided to create a so-called ‘legacy backlog’ to set a political target and it has not been met”
“With no plan for onward accommodation for ‘new refugees’, and with many people’s asylum claims erroneously withdrawn due to government errors, our volunteers are dealing daily with asylum seekers left on the UK’s streets.”
James Cleverly told media that it was ‘impossible’ to know when the backlog of legacy asylum claims would be cleared
(PA)
Campaign group Migrant Voice criticised the government’s “smoke and mirrors policy of withdrawing claims and leaving people to fight legal challenges”. They added: “This isn’t ‘clearing’ anything. It is leaving vulnerable people in permanent limbo.”
Jon Featonby, of the Refugee Council, said that of the 98,000 cases still waiting on a decision, 33,085 had been made after the passing of the Illegal Migration Act.
This new act means that anyone who arrives in the UK illegally will not have their asylum claim granted and they will be detained and deported. “Under that act, those claims may become inadmissible and create a permanent backlog,” Mr Featonby added.
He continued: “Those people could, under the government’s latest bill, be at risk of being sent to Rwanda – but there’s no way anywhere near that number of people would be sent. So the vast majority would just end up in permanent limbo.”
Labour MP Chris Bryant said the Tories were “talking tosh” on clearing the asylum backlog.
Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, Darren Jones, said they were “salami-slicing data to try and suit their general election narrative”, adding: “We know from the evidence, from the data, that the asylum backlog is eight times higher than it was when Labour was last in government.”
New data shows that the government have also processed around 25,300 newer asylum claims, in addition to the legacy cases, taking the total number of decisions made in the past year to over 112,000, the highest figure in two decades. Of these, 67 per cent were granted asylum.
Labour’s Yvette Cooper said Mr Sunak’s claims about clearing the backlog were ‘not true’
(PA)
Government data published on Tuesday showed that the legacy backlog was drastically cut in the last few months of last year. There were 33,253 decisions left to make in October, but this fell to 4,537 by 28 December.
The total asylum backlog now stands at 98,599. This is a decrease on record high levels in early 2023, when the backlog stood at nearly 140,000, but it is still historically high. In March 2020, the backlog stood at 40,000 and in 2013 the backlog was down at 9,500.
The Home Office also revealed that 348 hotels were still being used to house asylum seekers in December, a slight decrease on 398 in October.
