Home Office plans new commission of adjudicators to replace judges in asylum appeals
Yvette Cooper will stop judges from hearing appeals from rejected asylum seekers as part of government efforts to clear the claims backlog more efficiently.
The home secretary will establish a new system of “professional adjudicators” to hear cases from individuals whose asylum claims have been denied, as the government seeks ways to process tens of thousands of cases.
The proposals, first reported by the Sunday Times, have been in development for months but are being expedited following a legal ruling that will require the government to rehouse 138 asylum seekers from the Bell hotel in Epping within days.
Other councils, including those controlled by Labour, are initiating similar cases, raising concerns in Whitehall about a sudden crisis in migrant accommodation.
Cooper stated: “We are determined to significantly reduce the number of people in the asylum system as part of our plan to eliminate asylum hotels… But we cannot continue with these utterly unacceptable delays in appeals due to the system we inherited, which allows failed asylum seekers to remain in the system for years, incurring enormous costs to the taxpayer.”
She assured that the government would reform the appeals system to make it “swift, fair, and independent, with high standards in place.”
This weekend, there have been a series of protests outside hotels in towns and cities across the country following weeks of demonstrations outside the Bell, which began after an asylum seeker residing there was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.
Rallies were organized this weekend in places including Bristol, Liverpool, Newcastle, Wakefield, and Aberdeen, resulting in at least 15 arrests. The Guardian revealed on Friday that the far-right Homeland party had been attempting to coordinate several demonstrations.
Ministers face both public and legal pressure to find an alternative to hotel accommodation for asylum seekers nationwide.
The new appeals system is intended to finalize claims more rapidly by reducing the lengthy court process that often ensues following a person’s status being denied.
Under the current system, individuals whose claims have been rejected can appeal to a tribunal judge. If denied again, they can appeal to a higher tribunal, which only assesses if the lower court made a legal error.
The government has already set a 24-week limit for appeals to be heard, but officials indicate that cases are still taking an average of 53 weeks.
Under Cooper’s proposals, the government will establish a new commission with statutory powers to hear appeals. It will be authorized to prioritize the claims of individuals living in government-funded accommodation and foreign offenders with deportation orders.
The Home Office released figures last week showing a record 110,000 asylum applications were made in the year leading up to June. However, the government is processing claims more quickly, with 71,000 cases awaiting an initial decision, down from a peak of 134,000 cases at the end of June 2023.
There are 32,059 asylum seekers living in hotels—more than when Labour came to power, but below a peak of 56,000 in September 2023.
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
