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Rishi Sunak is facing allegations of manipulating statistics and telling a blatant falsehood, as he asserted that the asylum backlog has been resolved, despite evidence indicating that nearly 100,000 individuals are still awaiting a decision.
The prime minister’s return to work after the new year break was made more challenging by the home secretary James Cleverly, who added to his troubles by stating that it is difficult to predict how much time will be needed to resolve pending cases.
The government announced that it fulfilled Mr. Sunak’s promise to resolve all previous asylum requests, also known as “legacy” claims, which were filed before June 2022. However, data from official sources showed that 4,500 of these cases are still in progress.
Mr. Sunak faced criticism for implying that the government had resolved the entire backlog, despite reports indicating that there are still 98,599 pending asylum claims in the system.
Stephen Kinnock, the shadow immigration minister, criticized the Prime Minister for spreading a blatant falsehood that was disrespectful to the intelligence of the public.
Politicians and charitable organizations expressed disapproval towards government officials for eliminating or “retracting” approximately 17,000 asylum requests. The Refugee Council stated that the Home Office had “misplaced” these rejected asylum seekers.
It came as:
On Tuesday, the latest data revealed that the government issued 35,000 “non-substantive” rulings in 2023, a significant increase from 13,093 in 2022. These decisions involve withdrawn, invalid, or temporarily halted applications, which are then removed from the official backlog.
Reasons for withdrawing applications may include missing interviews or appointments, and not completing new “fast-track” questionnaires. This can occur without the asylum seeker’s permission, even if attempts to reach them have been unsuccessful and their whereabouts are unknown.
Critics accused Rishi Sunak of dishonesty regarding figures on asylum seekers.
The Home Office was criticized by Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, for their lack of knowledge regarding the whereabouts of those individuals.
Enver Solomon, the CEO of the Refugee Council, expressed concern that the Home Office has failed to keep track of individuals who have been removed from the asylum process, putting them at risk of homelessness during the winter season.
MP Scott Benton, who was stripped of the Tory whip due to a scandal involving lobbying, posted on X (formerly known as Twitter): “Simply approving the majority of applications as ‘genuine’ and allowing 17,000 people to disappear without being seen again does not truly decrease the asylum backlog.”
Mr Sunak made his pledge to clear around 92,000 asylum claims by the end of last year as part of a plan to get a grip on the migrant crisis. Decisions have been made in 86,800 cases, with reviews ongoing in the remaining 4,500.
Sunak tweeted afterwards: “I promised to resolve the backlog of asylum decisions by 2023 and we have successfully fulfilled that commitment.”
Within a few hours, Number 10 had to refute the statement made by the Prime Minister that it was incorrect to say that the backlog had been resolved.
However, the assertion was rejected as “untrue” by opposing political parties, advocacy organizations, and even Fraser Nelson, the editor of the Conservative publication The Spectator. Nelson compared the post to that of a deceptive salesperson and advised the Prime Minister’s social media team to use this incident as a learning experience.
X also chimed in on the discussion, adding a contextual note to Mr. Sunak’s tweet about the “cleared backlog”. The note stated, “The backlog has not been cleared.”
Mr Cleverly defended the remaining cases, saying they were complex and that it was fair to count them as cleared because they are being looked at. But he added that it was “impossible” to say how long they would take to process.
Lee Anderson questions Home Office officials about their ‘shocking’ inability to provide numbers on asylum seekers.
However, Mr Cleverly and the government faced criticism for allegedly manipulating the data.
As the situation worsened, charitable organizations criticized the government for implementing a deceptive strategy of retracting claims in order to falsely reduce the backlog. Officials from the Home Office have previously acknowledged their lack of knowledge about the whereabouts of these individuals seeking asylum.
The CEO of Care4Calais, Steve Smith, accused the government of manipulating numbers. He stated, “The government intentionally fabricated a ‘legacy backlog’ to establish a political goal, but it has not been achieved.”
“Volunteers are currently faced with the challenge of assisting asylum seekers who have been left without a plan for future housing and whose claims may have been mistakenly withdrawn by the government. This has resulted in a growing number of refugees being stranded on the streets of the UK.”
According to James Cleverly, it is not possible to determine when the backlog of past asylum claims will be resolved.
The government’s approach of withdrawing claims was condemned by the campaign group Migrant Voice as “smoke and mirrors.”
According to Jon Featonby from the Refugee Council, out of the 98,000 pending cases, 33,085 were processed after the implementation of the Illegal Migration Act. This could potentially put them in danger of being deported to Rwanda.
“However, it is highly unlikely that such a large number of individuals would actually be sent. Therefore, the majority would likely remain in a state of indefinite uncertainty,” he stated.
According to Alistair Carmichael, spokesperson for home affairs in the Liberal Democrat party, the Conservative government is once again touting an accomplishment that is not really noteworthy. Rishi Sunak has simply processed asylum claims that should have been addressed long ago. The truth is, there are still 99,000 individuals waiting in the asylum backlog, caught in a state of uncertainty and trapped in a flawed system.
Recent data indicates that the government has handled approximately 25,300 recent asylum requests in addition to the backlog of cases, bringing the total number of decisions made in the last year to over 112,000, which is the largest number in 20 years. Out of these, 67 percent were approved for asylum.
Yvette Cooper of the Labour party stated that Mr. Sunak’s assertions about addressing the backlog were false.
The information also revealed that the previous unfinished work was significantly reduced in the final months of the previous year. In October, there were 33,253 decisions remaining to be made, which decreased to 4,537 by December 28th.
The current number of pending asylum cases is 98,599, which is lower than the peak of 140,000 in early 2023. However, it is still a historically high level. In March 2020, there were 40,000 pending cases, and in 2013, the number was as low as 9,500.
In December, the Home Office shared that 348 hotels were still being utilized as accommodations for asylum seekers, which was a small decline from the previous count of 398 in October.
Source: independent.co.uk
