The UK’s inability to deport failed asylum seekers is fuelling an extortionate bill for taxpayers, a scathing report has revealed. The spending watchdog accused ministers of not taking a “realistic approach” to removing people with no right to seek sanctuary. And this has led to “significant” costs, the National Audit Office said.
The Home Office also does not hold any data on the number of people who have absconded from the asylum system, the number of migrants who have launched repeated appeals or the “total number of people currently subject to some form of enforcement action”. The department also doesn’t know many “unsuccessful removals” there have been. The NAO estimated the asylum crisis is costing more than £5bn a year, including almost £3bn alone in accommodation.
The National Audit Office revealed: “Our analysis shows how efforts to improve the system in recent years have often been short-term and narrowly focused on one area of the system in reaction to large backlogs and sharply increasing costs.
“Increases in speed of processing have sometimes come at the expense of the quality of decisions, and improvements in one area have shunted problems elsewhere.
“There has also been no realistic approach to the fact that in a significant number of cases it is not possible to return people whose claims have been refused.
“As a result, the system has incurred significant costs – primarily on accommodation and support – that might have been avoided.”
Some 36,273 people are staying in taxpayer-funded hotel rooms, a 13% rise compared to June’s figure of 32,041.
And a record number of asylum claims – 110,051 in the year to September – is heaping more pressure on the crumbling system.
This has been fuelled by a sharp rise in Channel migrant crossings and a surge in foreign nationals applying for refuge after arriving on a work, study or visitor visa.
The NAO added of the lack of deportations: “This leads to significant expenditure on support and accommodation or detention, without progress towards resolution of the case.
“In our sample of 5,000 people who claimed asylum in January 2023, we found that the claims of more than a third (41%) of people in our sample remain open but are not awaiting an appeal decision or the outcome of further submissions to the Home Office.
“These claims are not being progressed, and the individuals involved have not been removed from the UK.”
