The UK’s backlog of asylum claims, which currently stands at about 140,000, has been building up since 2013. The government, and specifically the Home Office, bears responsibility for this. Try as he might to present himself as a new broom, sweeping away old cobwebs and cleaning up a scrappy system, Rishi Sunak must take his share of responsibility for the current dysfunction – and the acute suffering it leads to.
In the House of Commons on Tuesday, the prime minister sought to present his five-point plan as a blast of bold, fresh thinking. His ambition to drastically reduce the backlog next year, and promise of new resources including extra, specialist caseworkers, sound like constructive steps. But it is doubtful whether these aims will be met, and the rest of the announcement gave more reason for alarm than relief at the direction of travel.
Last month an accommodation centre at Manston airport in Kent was emptied out after unacceptable conditions including disease outbreaks were exposed. But ministers seem as determined as ever to avoid the expense of hotels, and Mr Sunak claimed in parliament that vacant holiday camps and army barracks will soon provide beds for 10,000 people. Citing his close working relationship with the home secretary, Suella Braverman – who should have resigned in October for breaching the ministerial code – Mr Sunak also signalled his support for the policy of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda. And he promised new legislation that will – if passed – make it impossible for people arriving in the UK on small boats to submit asylum claims at all.
Mr Sunak said that “fairness” must be the overarching principle, and is fond of pointing out how tolerant and welcoming he thinks the UK is. But he declined to explain what is meant by the statement that the existing international framework for refugees is “obsolete”. And he offered no clear assurances that safe and legal routes, including specific provision for children and family reunion, would be put in place.
A reasonable case can be made for fast-tracking returns to Albania, as some EU countries are already doing, and for an enhanced role for the National Crime Agency in combating trafficking. But it is wrong to present such measures in militaristic rhetoric about “boots on the ground” patrolling French beaches. Whatever the reasons for the shift in demographics of small-boat passengers, the reality of life for most asylum seekers of all nationalities is a level of hardship difficult for people living settled lives to imagine. Disgracefully, the chaotic emptying of Manston led to a number of its former residents being dumped in central London, with nowhere to go. In October it emerged that 222 children have disappeared from hotels in which the Home Office put them.
The government’s cruel and wasteful Rwanda scheme makes it an international outlier. There is every reason to doubt the pledge to tackle waiting lists with new staff, given that recruitment targets across the public sector are routinely being missed. Following Liz Truss’s disgraceful suggestion in the summer that the French president could be considered a “foe”, Mr Sunak’s commitment to work with EU partners is a welcome change. For the sake of the thousands of people stuck in limbo, waiting for their claims to be processed, it must be hoped that his renewed focus on this issue will bring some beneficial effects, however limited.
• This article was amended on 14 December 2022. The accommodation centre at Manston airport in Kent was emptied out last month, but did not close down as an earlier version said.
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