Number of Asylum Seekers waiting over 6 months for a decision rises dramatically

The number of pending applications received for asylum has risen from just over 6,000 at the start of the Coalition to over 9,800 in the most recent figures (February 2014). Since Home Secretary Theresa May closed the UK Border Agency 13months ago, UK Visas and Immigration has been subsumed into the Home Office.

 

Despite the much maligned UK Border Agency closing it shows that the centralising of asylum claims have only worsened. The chart above shows that asylum seekers awaiting decisions to allow them to remain in the UK, that have taken more than 6months, have risen by well over 1,000 in the last year. Speaking to the MailOnline at the beginning of the year shadow immigration minister David Hanson said that

 

”It’s unacceptable that people are reminaing indefinitely in the country because the Home Secretary’s department can’t make decision and each month is simply adding cases to the backlog when people apply for asylum.”

 

We’ll keep track of the asylum figures over the next few months with the Home Office Quarterly statistics released at the end of May.