Asylum backlog at record high, Home Office figures show

The number of asylum seekers waiting for a decision on their case in the UK has soared to record levels, with about 166,000 people in the backlog.

Almost 110,000 have been waiting for six months or more, according to Home Office data published on Thursday.

The new figures show almost 75,000 asylum claims in the UK in 2022, the highest for 19 years.

On Wednesday the Home Office announced plans to streamline the system by scrapping interviews in some cases.

The move aims to reduce to reduce the asylum backlog which Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wants to see largely eradicated by the end of this year.

Instead of a face-to-face interview, some 12,000 asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Libya, Syria and Yemen will fill in a 10-page questionnaire.

Applicants from these countries already have 95% of their asylum claims accepted, says the Home Office.

The new figures show that, overall, more than three quarters (75%) of asylum decisions made in 2022 were in favour of granting asylum, the highest in more than 30 years.

However the actual number of decisions made in 2022 was 10% below the level before the pandemic.

Of those whose applications were refused last year, 3,531 people were returned by the Home Office in the year to the end of September, marginally higher than the previous year.

However these figures are far lower than for 2012 when there were 15,000 enforced returns, and 2004 when there were more than 21,000.