Rishi Sunak engulfed by row over ‘false’ asylum statistics as 100,000 migrants still stuck in backlog

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Rishi Sunak has been accused of making an attempt to “cook the books” after he claimed to have cleared the asylum backlog regardless of almost 100,000 migrants still ready for a call.

The authorities initially mentioned it had cleared all so-called legacy asylum claims – counted as these submitted earlier than June 2022 – however figures printed on Tuesday confirmed that 4,500 of those circumstances are still to be processed.

The prime minister then went on to assert that every one asylum claims had been issued with a call, boasting on X, previously Twitter: “I said that this government would clear the backlog of asylum decisions by the end of 2023. That’s exactly what we’ve done.”

But information launched by the Home Office on Tuesday confirmed that there was a complete of 98,599 asylum claims languishing in the system – with ministers admitting it’s “impossible” to place a date on clearing the general backlog.

Politicians and charities criticised the federal government over withdrawing some 17,000 asylum claims, with Refugee Council’s Enver Solomon saying the Home Office had “lost track” of the failed asylum seekers.

Labour’s shadow residence secretary Yvette Cooper additionally hit out on the Home Office for having “no idea where those people are”.

She slammed Mr Sunak and his residence secretary James Cleverly, saying the claims of clearing the backlog had been “just not true”. Shadow immigration minister Steven Kinnock accused the PM of selling a “barefaced lie” that was “an insult to the public’s intelligence”.

And even Twitter weighed in on the controversy – with an “added context” be aware put onto Mr Sunak’s celebratory tweet saying: “The backlog has not been cleared”.

Mr Sunak pledged to clear round 92,000 asylum claims by the top of final 12 months as a part of a five-point plan to grip the migrant disaster. Decisions have been made in 86,800 circumstances with opinions ongoing in the remaining 4,500.

Mr Cleverly defended the remaining circumstances, saying they had been advanced and that it was honest to rely them as cleared as a result of they’re being checked out. But he added that it was “impossible” to say how lengthy they’d take to course of.

It got here as the newest statistics from the 12 months ending September 2023 present the federal government withdrew 17,316 asylum functions, greater than 4 occasions the quantity in the earlier 12 months (4,260).

Enver Solomon, CEO of the Refugee Council, mentioned: “The reality is that the Home Office has lost track of too many people who have been removed from the asylum process and at the same time left  those who have been granted refugee protection to fend for themselves, at risk of sleeping rough during the winter months.” 

MP Scott Benton, who had the Tory whip eliminated over a lobbying scandal, criticised the federal government over the determine. He 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.”

Charities accused the federal government of working a “smoke and mirrors policy” of withdrawing claims to artificially shrink the backlog. Home Office officers have beforehand admitted that they don’t know the whereabouts of those asylum seekers.

CEO of Care4Calais, Steve Smith, mentioned the federal government was making an attempt to “cook the books”. He mentioned: “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.”

Campaign group Migrant Voice criticised the federal 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, mentioned that of the 98,000 circumstances still ready on a call, 33,085 had been made after the passing of the Illegal Migration Act.

This new act signifies that anybody who arrives in the UK illegally won’t have their asylum declare granted and they are going to 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 mentioned the Tories had been “talking tosh” on clearing the asylum backlog.

Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, Darren Jones, mentioned they had been “salami-slicing data to try and suit their general election narrative”, including: “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 information exhibits that the federal government have additionally processed round 25,300 newer asylum claims, in addition to the legacy circumstances, taking the whole variety of selections made in the previous 12 months to over 112,000, the very best determine in 20 years. Of these, 67 per cent had been granted asylum.

Government information printed on Tuesday confirmed that the legacy backlog was drastically reduce in the previous few months of final 12 months. There had been 33,253 selections left to make in October, however this fell to 4,537 by 28 December.

The complete asylum backlog now stands at 98,599. This is a lower on report excessive ranges in early 2023, when the backlog stood at almost 140,000, however it’s still traditionally excessive. In March 2020, the backlog stood at 40,000 and in 2013 the backlog was down at 9,500.

The Home Office additionally revealed that 348 motels had been still getting used to deal with asylum seekers in December, a slight lower on 398 in October.