A new government scheme to give asylum seekers just 20 days to fill in detailed questionnaires in English or face rejection has been condemned by the Red Cross as figures show that the backlog of applications has reached 160,000.
The humanitarian charity has said the plan, which is meant to help fulfil Rishi Sunak’s pledge to clear a “legacy” backlog of 92,000 applicants by the end of this year, could have a “devastating impact” on vulnerable refugees.
The plan to end face-to-face interviews and replace them with questionnaires, which targets 12,000 people from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Libya, Syria and Yemen, emerged on Thursday in a leak of an 11-page questionnaire, disclosed by the Guardian.
It comes as Home Office figures released on Thursday show that at the end of December last year, 160,919 people were waiting for an initial decision on their claim.
This was up 60% from 100,564 for the same period in 2021 and the highest figure since current records began in 2010.
Christina Marriott, the executive director of strategy and communications at the British Red Cross, said the charity was “deeply concerned” at the suggestion that applications may be withdrawn if refugees could not fill in the document on time.
“These men, women and children may not speak English and are likely traumatised from fleeing persecution and war. They need our support and compassion, not rushed and complicated bureaucracy that will only increase suffering.
“We know from experience that government communications with people seeking asylum often falls short – translations are rarely provided and forms are lost in transit. This time limit could have devastating impacts on people who need protection.”
Sile Reynolds, the head of asylum advocacy at Freedom from Torture, said the new plans would leave torture victims open to further abuse.
“Plans for an ‘asylum claim questionnaire’ – requiring people to complete a complex form, often without any legal advice, in a language they don’t understand and to a 20-day deadline – could see many asylum claims wrongly withdrawn, leaving those individuals at risk of return to torture or persecution,” she said.
The questionnaire asks more than 50 complicated questions that it says “must be completed in English” and suggests using “online translation tools” if necessary.
It goes on to say that a failure to return the document within 20 working days “may result in an individual’s asylum claim being withdrawn”.
Questions include: “If you do fear officials in your country, is it possible to email or telephone family members or friends in your country of origin to request [identity documents] without placing yourself or them at risk?”
Another question asks: “Were you subject to human trafficking (the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit) or modern slavery (severe exploitation of other people for personal or commercial gain) during your journey to or after you arrived in the UK?”
Colin Yeo, the immigration barrister and author, said the questionnaire was “like a full asylum interview – and an asylum seeker will therefore need legal advice in order to answer it properly”.
In December, Sunak promised to reduce the asylum backlog by the end of 2023 as he vowed to “stop the boats” crossing the Channel.
The Home Office has about 10 months to clear 92,601 initial asylum claims that were in the system as of the end of June 2022.
The new data shows that the government took only 23,800 decisions on asylum applications in 2022, contributing to an increasing backlog that reached almost 161,000 people at the end of the year. This was up 60% over the year, from 101,000 at the end of December 2021 and fewer than 36,000 in 2018.
In 2022, the government received 74,800 new asylum claims relating to 89,000 people, comparable to levels seen in mid-2003 but lower than the 2002 peak.
A recent Migration Observatory analysis showed that an increase in asylum applications was only one factor behind the current backlog. Slow decision-making allowed the backlog to build up over several years, well before the rise in asylum applications in 2021-22.
The rising backlog was “due to more cases entering the asylum system than receiving initial decisions”, the Home Office said.
The UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency, welcomed the measures adding that it would continue to engage with the Home Office on their implementation. “It will be important that asylum seekers understand what is required of them and have the opportunity to present their claims fully and accurately,” a statement said.
Despite intense pressure from Conservative backbenchers to speed up the asylum process, the Home Office decided fewer than 1% of applications from people who arrived on small boats last year.
Fewer than 19,000 initial decisions were made on asylum applications in the UK in 2022, up 29% on 2021 but 10% below the 20,766 in the pre-pandemic year of 2019.
More than three-quarters (76%) of initial decisions on asylum applications in 2022 were grants of refugee status, humanitarian protection or alternative forms of leave. This is a “substantially higher grant rate” than in pre-pandemic years, when around a third of initial decisions were grants, the Home Office said.
The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said: “These are truly shameful levels of incompetence from a government that has completely lost any grip.”
The Home Office said: “As part of efforts to speed up the asylum process for high-grant nationalities, 12,000 asylum seekers who have made legacy asylum claims will be asked to provide details in a new Home Office questionnaire to help determine their case. If they do not reply, their asylum claim could be withdrawn.”
