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While this fall looks decent, the Home Office will have to treble the number of decisions it is taking every three months to hit Mr Sunak\u2019s target.<\/p>\n
The Government still believes it is on its way to hitting this target by the end of 2023, after having doubled the number of caseworkers and promising to double the number again to 2,500 by the autumn of this year.<\/p>\n
In March 2023, each caseworker carried out on average seven substantive interviews or made initial decisions on cases per month compared to just 4 in December 2022.<\/p>\n
The legacy backlog progress is also being eroded by new entries leading to the overall increase in those awaiting decisions.<\/p>\n
In total, 175,457 people were waiting for a decision, a 44 percent rise from the 122,213 a year prior.<\/p>\n
This is now the highest figure since current records began in 2010.<\/p>\n
Don’t miss… <\/strong> We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info<\/p>\n Earlier this week, the Institute for Public Policy Research said Britain faces a \u201cperma-backlog\u201d of asylum seekers be the time of the next election, with housing costs for migrants expected to soar to over \u00a35 billion a year.<\/p>\n Labour\u2019s shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock said a Labour government would \u201cscrap the unworkable, unaffordable and unethical Rwanda plan and use that money to fund the National Crime Agency properly so they can work more effectively with Europol and Interpol\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe would clear the backlog by upgrading the seniority of the caseworkers and decision makers in the Home Office, and by triaging so you have high grant rate countries and low grant rate countries being processed much more quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking on GB News this morning, Amnesty International’s Steve Valdez-Symonds said: “The single biggest reason why the asylum backlog keeps going up is because ministers have instituted a policy of attempting simply not to determine people’s claims”.<\/p>\n “They have only this year gone to the extent of passing a law that will into the future require them not to determine people’s claims, and if you keep doing this your backlog will get bigger.”<\/p>\n However Labour is also relying on a new returns deal with the EU, something Brussels recently told Britain isn\u2019t going to happen.<\/p>\n Responding to this morning\u2019s figures, the Home Office said: \u201cThe government\u2019s focus is clear \u2013 we must stop the boats and prevent the unacceptable number of people risking their lives by making these dangerous and illegal crossings, which continue to place an unprecedented strain on our asylum system\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve transformed our immigration system to work in our best interests by encouraging the best and brightest to come to the UK, to support the growth of the economy and boost prosperity, and we remain absolutely committed to reducing levels of immigration into this country.\u201d<\/p>\n
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