The UK came close to giving all waiting asylum seekers a full amnesty, it has been claimed, casting doubt over the legitimacy of approved claims as the Government says it has cleared its backlog.
The Home Office confirmed that Rishi Sunak had met his commitment of clearing the backlog of asylum applications before the end of the year, but how exactly the Government achieved this has landed the PM in hot water. 112,000 applications were processed, on which 77,000 decision were made – 67 percent of which were allowed to stay.
But sources have since cast doubt over the legitimacy of this process. Patrick Christys on GB News quoted a source which claimed the Government was even initially advised to give a “full amnesty to everyone on the backlog list and start again”.
He added: “So when people are piping up now and saying that approving 67 percent of the asylum backlog proves that the majority of people coming across the channel are genuine asylum seekers, you have to consider that we very easily could have had a situation where every single one of them was granted amnesty.
“The Government could not publicly be seen to have an amnesty – the backlash would have been too large. But I can also reveal that of the 25,500 people who were refused asylum, it is not clear if any of them have been deported.
“We have requested that information from the home office, and we are yet to hear back.”
A source reportedly added: “Rishi Sunak does not want to do whatever it takes to stop the boats, because if he did, it would destroy his legacy on the dinner party circuit once he stops being prime minister.”
The Government has been accused of “gaslighting” voters over claims of the backlog being cleared, as official statistics suggest there remains over 4,000 outstanding cases. Civil servants told iNews it was using “smoke and mirrors” to get numbers down.
They added that the vast majority of people with withdrawn claims are believed to have disappeared within the UK.
The official even said that anyone who “pops up again” may be able to re-enter the asylum system and add to the new backlog. They are expecting a high number of appeals over refused claims.
On Tuesday, Home Secretary James Cleverly insisted the Government had only committed to “processing” the applications.
“The commitment was to make sure they were all processed and that’s exactly what we’ve done,” he told the BBC.
However, an internal Home Office email sent to officials on Tuesday reportedly only makes the claim that all cases in the legacy backlog have been “reviewed”.
The Care4Calais charity said the tactics used had left thousands of asylum seekers “destitute” and meant many claims were “erroneously withdrawn due to Government errors”.
Chief executive Steve Smith added: “Whether it has been withdrawing 17,000 asylum claims or labelling 4,500 cases ‘complex’, the Government’s attempts to ‘cook the books’ have failed.
“They decided to create a so-called ‘legacy backlog’ to set a political target and it has not been met, all the while the actual total backlog has continued to rise.”
Meanwhile a leaked Border Force document, seen by the Telegraph, suggested the number of migrants crossing the Channel could reach 35,000 in 2024.
In the announcement that the backlog had been cleared, Mr Sunak said: “By clearing the legacy asylum backlog, deciding more than 112,000 cases, we are saving the taxpayer millions of pounds in expensive hotel costs, reducing strain on public services and ensuring the most vulnerable receive the right support.
“But we cannot be complacent, which is why I am focused on delivering on my commitment to stop the boats and get flights off the ground to Rwanda.”
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman told reporters on Tuesday: “We committed to clearing the backlog, that is what the Government has done.
“We are being very transparent about what that entails. We have processed all of those cases and indeed gone further than the original commitment. We’re up to 112,000 decisions made overall.
“As a result of that process, there are a small minority of cases which are complex and which, because of our rigorous standards, require further work. But nonetheless, it is a significant piece of work by Home Office officials to process such huge numbers in a short period of time while retaining our rigorous safety standard.”
