Braverman concedes asylum claims will take time to clear

BRITISH home secretary, Suella Braverman, said the Home Office was unlikely to achieve prime minister Rishi Sunak’s objective of resolving a backlog of 92,000 asylum claims by the end of the year.

But she added there should be a significant improvement in the speed at which claims are processed. Braverman told the Commons home affairs committee: “If you maintained the current pace, we wouldn’t meet the target. However, ... we will have our full cohort of decision makers later this year. They will be trained up and fully proficient.”

The asylum backlog total stands at 78,954 cases relating to 104,049 people, according to the latest Home Office data, the BBC reported. Officials need to make 8,773 decisions every month to fulfil Sunak’s pledge. The Home Office is making around 3,600 asylum decisions a month at present, based on the total of 10,750 decisions in the first quarter of 2023.

“There will need to be a substantial increase in productivity and output. I agree with that. I believe we’ve put in place the measures and the processes, [but] all of that takes time,” Braverman is reported to have said.

Since the 92,000 backlog as of June last year, a surge in further asylum claims has increased the total backlog to 173,000. In May, the number of Home Office staff dedicated to making asylum decisions was 1,280, which marked a significant rise from last year. However, it represented a slight decline from the number employed at the beginning of 2023.

Parliament is currently debating the government’s second major piece of immigration legislation since small boat crossings began in 2018. If the illegal migration bill becomes law, it will block asylum claims from migrants arriving in small boats, although it is likely to face a challenge under human rights law.