Govt misses asylum deportation target
The number of asylum seekers being deported has fallen by 28 per cent, causing the government to miss its targets on removals, new figures show.
About 4,500 people made unfounded applications for UK asylum in the three months to September, compared to just 3,635 deportations in the same period – a shortfall in the “tipping point” of 865.
Applicants are also waiting longer to hear whether they are to be granted asylum – just 69 per cent received an initial decision within two months in the three months to July, compared to 76 per cent in the previous quarter.
The number of appeals made fell 33 per cent in the three months to September, but the number of appeals decided also fell, by 22 per cent on the previous quarter and 54 per cent on the year.
However, the Home Office pointed out that applications for asylum have fallen seven per cent since this time last year, from 6,320 to 5,850, reaching the lowest level since 1993.
And although there has been a fall in the number of removals compared to the previous quarter, the total number of deportations in the first three months of 2006 exceeds the total number of applications by a margin of about 700.
“We have seen in the year so far more failed asylum seekers being removed than predicted unfounded asylum claims, but there is more still do,” said immigration minister Liam Byrne.
Most people applying for asylum in the past three months were from Eritrea, followed by Afghanistan, Iran, China and Somalia. However the number of applicants from China has fallen, as have those coming from Zimbabwe, Sudan and Nigeria.
Shadow immigration minister Damian Green said today’s figures showed an asylum system which was “out of control and unfair both to genuine asylum seekers and the British taxpayer”.
He said: “Things are also getting worse for new applicants for asylum. There is a sharp fall in the number receiving a decision within two months, which means delays are once more building up in the asylum system.”
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg added: “Tony Blair’s relentless focus on the so-called ‘tipping point’ was always bound to come unstuck given the Home Office’s record of incompetence.
“We need less political interference in the way asylum seekers are given a hearing, and more effective removals of those who should never have applied in the first place.”
