UK asylum backlog lower since Rwanda plan scrapped, figures show

Nearly 63,000 people who were waiting for their cases to be processed at the time of the general election are expected to be granted asylum by the Labour government, an analysis has found.

The Refugee Council said the government’s decision to scrap the plan to deport people to Rwanda and accelerate claims meant the asylum backlog was forecast to be 118,063 at the start of 2025 – 59,000 cases lower than if the government had continued with the policy.

Figures show that there were 118,882 people in the backlog by the end of June 2024. Based on the grant rates in the year to that date the charity expects 62,801 people to be granted asylum.

Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the charity, said Labour had “inherited an asylum system that was utterly broken” and while “decisive early action has been taken to stop the system from falling over”, there needed to be a “comprehensive reform to create a fair, orderly and humane asylum system”.

“A functioning system is one that quickly and accurately makes decisions about who has a valid reason to be protected in the UK and who doesn’t and supports refugees to rebuild their lives,” he said.

“People seeking asylum need quick decisions so they can feel secure about their future in Britain, while the public needs to feel confident that the government is making fair decisions about who can stay in the UK and who cannot.”

In a further development, Downing Street said ministers were “committed” to ending the use of asylum hotels. Reports have claimed that the Home Office was considering reopening some previously closed by the Conservatives. Labour had pledged in its manifesto to stop housing asylum seekers in taxpayer-funded hotels but was on Wednesday accused of seeking to use more.

The Home Office is understood to be reviewing the hotels being used to house asylum seekers. However, the department would not confirm if it was seeking to use more or reopen any of those previously closed.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “This government took quick action to restore order to the asylum system that we inherited by restarting asylum processing to clear the backlog.

“This is happening as we continue to remove more people with no right to be here – with over 3,000 people returned since we formed government – while also driving down the costs of asylum accommodation to save money for the taxpayer.”

It has also emerged that the government has chartered a deportation flight to Nigeria and Ghana which is due to take off on Thursday – the first of its kind for more than two years. Thirteen Nigerians were removed to Lagos on 30 June 2022. That flight then carried on to Ghana, where eight Ghanaians were returned.

James Wilson, the director of Detention Action, said: “Mass deportation flights using chartered planes have been controversial, facing numerous legal challenges and community protests. In 2022, the government seemingly abandoned mass deportations outside of Europe, but the new government is now resurrecting these flights.”

The Home Office has been approached for comment.

More than 27,000 people seeking asylum have arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel so far this year. Home Office figures show 176 arrived in three boats on Tuesday, taking the provisional total for 2024 to date to 27,509.