Just 0.1 per cent of asylum seekers referred to a Home Office unit that was set up to assess claims following Brexit have been sent back, figures show.
After the loss of the Dublin III Regulation – which allowed some asylum seekers to be returned – the new Third Country Unit was given the task of deciding whether those who arrive in the UK have travelled through a safe “third country” and can be refused asylum.
But official statistics show that, while 15,898 people were told they had been referred to the unit in its first 18 months, only 21 were returned over that period.
Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, seized on the figures as fresh evidence of “shameful mismanagement” of the system, amid the controversy over the “wretched” conditions at the Manston processing centre.
The Labour Party opposed the “inadmissibility” process – calling it a “backlog to the backlog” of undecided claims – and has called for the establishment of bilateral return agreements with France and other key countries instead.
“Labour has warned the Conservative government repeatedly that they are increasing delays, backlogs and costs rather than solving the problem,” Ms Cooper said. “There has been a total collapse in asylum decision-making, with just half the number of decisions being made and a big increase in bureaucracy – at the same time as there are no return agreements in place.
“It’s the worst of all worlds. Refugees aren’t getting the support they need, those who are not refugees aren’t being returned, and asylum costs, hotel costs and overcrowding are all shooting up. This is a damning record of failure.”
The figures were revealed after Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer clashed over immigration in the Commons, when the prime minister claimed that Brexit had been successful in curbing arrivals.
“We gave the British people a referendum on Brexit. We delivered Brexit. We ended the free movement of people,” he told the Labour leader. “That’s our record on migration policy. It’s not something the honourable gentleman supported. He opposed it at every turn.”
However, EU withdrawal also killed the Dublin Regulation, which allowed asylum seekers to be returned – and the government’s promises of deals with individual countries have not been met.
Instead, claims made by people suspected to have passed through other European countries before reaching the UK have been categorised as “inadmissible” while they are assessed. In practice, this means that asylum seekers are typically left languishing in hotels, or other emergency accommodation, for six months, Labour says.
Hotel accommodation costs up to £150 per night – and the daily costs of the growing backlog of claims is put at £2.4m.
The Home Office has been asked to respond to the criticism of the operation of the Third Country Unit.
