The Government has claimed to have cleared the ‘legacy’ asylum backlog that is those who sought asylum before 28 June 2022
In a press release this morning,112,000 asylum cases had been processed in the past year.
The government also revealed end-of-year statistics that show small boat crossings were down by 36% in 2023. In recent months, crossings have fallen even more sharply – by 45% in the second half of the year and 64% in the final quarter of 2023, against equivalent periods in 2022.
This,they say, is despite sea crossings into Europe surging by 80% in 2023.
Labour though dispute the figures,Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said that the figures were totally false.
“The figures are over 100,000 cases, and they haven’t even fully cleared the bit of the backlog they were targeting”
She added that 4,500 cases have not been done, and that 17,000 “withdrawn” by the Home Office but they’ve no idea where those people are
Adding that Sunak said he would stop the boats this year, but 2023 was the second highest on record; almost 30,000 made the journey, 60 times higher than 5 years ago ago.
