Backlog clear-up could see 62,000 migrants granted asylum in the UK

Home Office reportedly considering reopening some hotels to house asylum seekers

Migrants arrive at the Port of Dover after being picked up by a UK Border Force vessel in the English Channel. Getty Images

More than 62,000 migrants could be granted asylum in the UK under efforts to clear the backlog of cases, estimates suggest.

The number of asylum applications waiting to be determined is expected to have reached 118,063 in January, the Refugee Council says. As many as 62,801 of them could be recognised as refugees in the UK, according to the charity.

Its calculation was based on the grant rates used in the 12 months leading up to the UK general election in July, with the Refugee Council applying that to asylum seekers of various nationalities to reach a "working assumption" of the figure in January.

No 10 Downing Street insisted the government was committed to ending the use of asylum hotels amid claims the Home Office is considering reopening some that were closed by the previous Conservative administration.

Officials are also believed to be stepping up asylum decision-making and moving towards monthly targets, similar to efforts to clear part of the backlog created under the previous government.

Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said Labour had "inherited an asylum system that was utterly broken" and while "decisive early action has been taken to stop the system from falling over", a "comprehensive reform to create a fair, orderly and humane asylum system" was required.

"People seeking asylum need quick decisions so they can feel secure about their future in Britain, while the public needs to feel confident that the government is making fair decisions about who can stay in the UK and who cannot,” he said.

The Refugee Council suggested there could be a smaller proportion of Channel crossings accounting for asylum claims, as people could be looking for other ways to arrive in the UK, potentially in the back of lorries, because the sea journey has become more dangerous.

People thought to be migrants are brought in to Dungeness, south-east England, by lifeboat, having been intercepted crossing the Channel in a small boat. PA

"It's no secret where you ramp up enforcement activity in relation to one route, not just enforcement activity close to the UK – closer to the UK Border – but all the way further back through Europe, you're going to see a shift in how people seek to get to the UK,” said Mr Solomon.

Labour vowed in its manifesto to stop housing migrants in taxpayer-funded hotels but was on Wednesday accused of considering using more. The Home Office is understood to be reviewing the matter but would not confirm if it was seeking to use more or reopen any of those previously closed.

A Home Office spokesman said: "This government took quick action to restore order to the asylum system that we inherited by restarting asylum processing to clear the backlog.

"This is happening as we continue to remove more people with no right to be here – with over 3,000 people returned since we formed government – while also driving down the costs of asylum accommodation to save money for the taxpayer."

According to the latest official figures, 176 people arrived on small boats on Tuesday, taking total arrivals so far this year to 27,980.

Four people, including a two-year-old boy, died this month after two boats got into trouble off the coast of France. On the same day, 973 migrants crossed the Channel in 17 small boats, the biggest daily number this year.

Labour has scrapped the previous Conservative government’s Rwanda plan, under which tens of thousands of asylum seekers who arrived in Britain without permission would be deported to the East African nation, in the hope this would deter others from attempting to cross the Channel on small boats.

But years of legal challenges meant that no one was sent to Rwanda under the scheme. Keir Starmer, a critic of plan since its inception, declared it "dead and buried" on his first day as Prime Minister.