Home Office loses track of nearly 6,000 asylum seekers
UK ministers have admitted that almost 6,000 asylum seekers who have withdrawn their claims have gone missing in the UK.
The migrants “remain in the UK and the Home Office is taking steps to urgently re-establish contact with them”, the PA agency reported.
The disclosure comes as the department was reprimanded by the statistics watchdog, after the Government was accused of lying about meeting a target to shift part of the asylum backlog.
The Home Office was forced to confirm the figures by the Commons Home Affairs Committee.
A senior official last year told members that the department did not know the whereabouts of more than 17,000 asylum seekers whose claims had been withdrawn.
Labour said the news was “yet more evidence of the shocking mismanagement and chaos” in the asylum system.
In the letter to committee chairwoman Dame Diana Johnson, illegal migration minister Michael Tomlison and legal migration minister Tom Pursglove said it was “erroneous to say that the Home Office has lost the 17,316 cases that have been withdrawn over the 12 months to 30 September 2023”.
This was because there were a “variety of reasons” why this decision could be made and that the majority (68 per cent) have either “left the UK already”, submitted a fresh asylum claim or steps were being taken to “secure their removal from the UK.”
But the ministers confirmed 5,598 (32 per cent) of those asylum seekers “remain in the UK and the Home Office is taking steps to urgently re-establish contact with them”, adding: “When we withdraw a claim, and if someone has no other permission to stay in the UK; funding and support stops and someone becomes liable for law enforcement activity to be removed from the UK.
“If these individuals were to make further submissions, caseworkers may consider whether their previous actions are damaging to their credibility.”
Am estimated 35 per cent of those asylum seekers are still in the UK and are in contact with the Home Office with their cases “now being managed by various teams across the Home Office including but not exclusively, Immigration Enforcement, appeals and litigation teams and further submissions”.
The letter said 3,144 (18 per cent) of migrants who had their case withdrawn are no longer in the UK and have “no reason to have a continuing asylum claim”.
The remaining 2,643 asylum seekers (15 per cent) are still in the UK and, in the wake of the department’s initial decision to withdraw their claim, have “re-engaged with the Home Office and have been granted some form of lawful immigration status”.
The numbers give an indication of how many asylum cases may have returned to the backlog after initially being recorded as withdrawn.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: “This is a staggering admission that the Home Office has lost almost 6,000 asylum seekers and has no idea where they are.
“The fact that thousands of people have been allowed to effectively disappear into the underground economy or left vulnerable to exploitation by criminal gangs is yet more evidence of the shocking mismanagement and chaos in the Tory asylum system.
“Time and again ministers are spending their time on gimmicks rather than getting a grip.”
The Prime Minister asked the Home Office to resolve 92,601 “legacy” claims made before the end of June 2022. But as of 28 December 2023, there were still, 4,537 outstanding applications.
Permanent secretary Sir Matthew Rycroft and his interim second-in-command Simon Ridley were questioned about the asylum backlog in November.
Asked the whereabouts of the 17,316 applicants, Mr Ridley replied: “In most cases, I don’t know where those people are.”
He told the committee a claim was withdrawn when asylum seekers did not attend scheduled interviews and were “not engaging with the system that leads to a decision”.
Other reasons included when someone had already left the UK before their claim was considered or if they chose to pursue another application for permission to stay in the country, according to the Home Office.
A No 10 spokeswoman said: “Every effort is taken to locate and remove individuals who have no right to be here and there’s a dedicated unit to trace and locate people.”
