Suella Braverman said she's confident there will be a “significant spike” in closing the backlog. Photo: Ben Stansall/AFP
Swella Braverman acknowledged that it is “absolutely impossible” to clear the backlog of asylum applications “because the boats keep coming.”
The interior minister told MPs that the number could not be reduced to zero because “cases are constantly coming into the system.” Among them are 1,452 migrants who crossed the English Channel this week in small boats, bringing the total to over 9,000 this year.
The Home Office has reduced the backlog of so-called “legacy” applications for asylum applications older than June 2022, by 17,000 since November, when Rishi Sunak promised to eradicate them by the end of this year.
< p>However, the total number of pending asylum applications, including a drop in the number of inherited cases, increased from 131,292 in November to 137,583 in May.
Housing, feeding and supporting asylum seekers who are in line are expensive. about £3bn a year in taxpayers, including £6m a day to accommodate 45,000 asylum seekers in hotels.
Ms Braverman said: “It is absolutely impossible to ever bring [total backlog] to zero because cases are constantly coming into the system. The numbers keep going up because the boats keep coming in and that's the flow of cases and that's what we're working to reduce as well.” be a “significant surge” in the reduction of work in progress due to doubling the number of asylum specialists, streamlining bureaucracy and increasing staff productivity.
She told members of the Home Affairs Committee that the Home Office intended to increase the number of asylum specialists from 1,280 in May to 1,800 by summer, and then double to 2,500 by September.
But officials acknowledged that this should be achieved in terms of attrition of 28% of employees, although this is less than 48% last summer.
Figures released last week showed 1,280 at the beginning of May, up only slightly from 1,265 in November .
Tim Lawton, a Conservative committee member and former secretary, said it was “unrealistic” for the Home Office to believe it would hit Mr. Sunak's goal of clearing the backlog by the end of the year. He said it would require social workers to more than quadruple the number of approved asylum applications to over 10,000 per month.
Ms Braverman acknowledged that it would require a “substantial” increase in productivity and the performance of social workers, but told him: “I'm not as pessimistic as you.”
“When you factor in the doubling of the number of decision makers, the impact of a streamlined asylum evaluation process, and changes in the way decisions are made, I believe the percentage and progress will increase significantly.”
Ms Braverman said that the combination of the Illegal Migration Bill, which effectively prohibits illegal incoming migrants from seeking asylum, the deportation of migrants to Rwanda and the use of abandoned RAF military bases and barges to house persons, asylum seekers will act as a deterrent.
“Once we can resettle people from the United Kingdom to Rwanda or another safe country, we will see a reduction in the number of people arriving and a reduction in the burden on our host state and our detention capacity,” she added.
Expected that within a few days the Court of Appeal will decide on the legality of the deportation flights to Rwanda. If judges refuse to allow the Supreme Court appeal, flights could begin later this summer.
“Once we are done and complete the lawsuit and provided we are successful, we will be able to take off,” Ms Braverman said.
During the committee hearing, she also called on the police take more “strong and quick” action against the “Just Stop the Oil” protesters now that they have a “full arsenal of legal tools”. ”after a change in the law, approved on Wednesday by the House of Lords.
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “It has been clear for months that the government does not intend to eliminate the accumulated legacy by the end of this year.
“Instead of pushing through unworkable and costly legislation that will only cause more suffering for refugees fleeing war and persecution, the government should develop a more ambitious and fair and efficient approach to tackling the backlog. This should include making faster decisions based on the validity of each person's claim.”
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