28 February 2024 , 17:23
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Botched Tory migration policies mean more than 50,000 people are stuck in a perma-backlog - and the number is set to grow.
A damning report found that tens of thousands of asylum seekers are unable to work and stuck in temporary accommodation. The failure to bring in the costly Rwanda deportation project means they're barred from claiming asylum, but ministers have nowhere to send them.
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said the Home Office 'chaos' is costing taxpayers millions.
Suella Braverman's Illegal Migration Act means anyone who arrived in the UK without authorisation, including on small boats, after July 20 last year can't have their asylum claim considered. Meanwhile anyone who arrived after March 7, 2023, cannot generally be be given permission to stay.
Even if the Rwanda scheme - which would see asylum seekers given a one-way ticket to the African nation, it is "highly doubtful" it will have the capacity required, the IPPR said.
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Marley Morris, associate director for migration at IPPR, said: “Chaos in the home office has led to tens of thousands of asylum seekers stuck in a perma-backlog, unable to get on with their lives and costing the taxpayer millions. This was an entirely predictable outcome of the Illegal Migration Act. The only way to escape this situation is for the Home Office to start processing claims.”
Stephen Kinnock MP, Labour ’s Shadow Immigration Minister, commenting on the findings, said: "The fact that the Conservatives have simply replaced one asylum backlog with another, at an enormous cost to the British taxpayer, only goes to illustrate the complete and utter chaos they have created in the asylum system.
"The Tories have already pledged to give £400million to the Rwandan government without a single person being flown there, and wider removals have collapsed by 34 per cent since 2010.
"It’s time the government stopped wasting taxpayers’ money. They should instead deliver Labour's plan to end the crossings by smashing the criminal smuggler gangs upstream through a new cross-border police force, and to clear the backlog through faster processing and a new returns unit to speed up the safe country removals of those who fail in their asylum claims."
The IPPR said in 2022/23 the asylum system cost £3.97billion, compared with £500million a decade earlier. The Home Office said staff were "now working through the next cohort of applications" in the wake of working to process so-called legacy asylum claims.
"We are beginning to implement measures in the Illegal Migration Act following the Supreme Court's judgment on Rwanda and alongside the Safety of Rwanda Bill going through Parliament, delivering against this Government's priority of tackling illegal migration," a department spokeswoman added.