Over 172,000 people in the UK are now awaiting an initial decision on their case to stay as a refugee.
Rishi Sunak has made it a priority to reduce the increasing number of people crossing the English Channel in small boats.As part of his plans to tackle the issue, he has set a high-profile promise to clear the backlog of "legacy" asylum cases lodged before a law change in June 2022 by the end of this year.But the latest figures reveal it had only reduced to 78,954 cases by the end of March, suggesting the prime minster faces an uphill task to meet the target.
"That is not a reason to maintain an inefficient process, but we need a process where deterrence is suffused through every element," he added. The Home Office also says it has introduced caseworker units specialised by nationality, and is digitising the process to speed up case handling.
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