Asylum claims down
New Home Office figures show that asylum applications have fallen 20 per cent in the past three months.
Applications for asylum, including dependents, fell to 10,585 compared with 13,150 in the previous period.
The quarter also saw a one per cent increase in the number of failed asylum seekers removed from the UK.
A total of 4,085 people were removed from the UK, a 27 per cent increase on the same period last year.
In addition, the Home Office claims that the number of applicants waiting for an initial decision is the lowest for a decade.
The Government is claiming the figures as a political vindication, following longstanding accusations that the asylum process is out of control.
Disquiet about the Government’s record recently led to the resignation of Beverley Hughes from the Home Office.
She resigned after allegations that she had been warned of visa fraud from two eastern European countries but had failed to act.
At the height of the political storm surrounding her position the Government commissioned the National Audit Office (NAO) to look into claims that the asylum figures were being artificially reduced by a corresponding increase in other immigration applications.
The NAO’s report, also released on Tuesday, concluded that the asylum figures are “in most respects reliable” and that there is no statistical evidence that the figures have been cut at the expense of other applications.
The Conservatives though are likely to continue their calls for an independent enquiry into the running of the UK’s asylum system. Shadow Home Secretary David Davis complained when the NAO study was announced that the NAO was forbidden from investigating ministerial policy, which he viewed as the essential issue.
Immigration Minister Des Browne however welcomed the findings, saying: “The Government has dramatically cut asylum applications, and the latest figures show that we are continuing to make progress in cutting the numbers of those who seek to abuse the system.
“This fall is a result of a raft of Government measures, including ending in-country appeals for nationals of safe countries, bringing in new visa regimes, closing Sangatte and rolling out detection technology and UK immigration controls along the north European coast.
“Crucially, the NAO report states that there is no clear statistical evidence that the reduction in the number of asylum applications has had any significant impact on other forms of migration.
“Let’s be clear -we need legal migrants who want to work, pay taxes and contribute to our economy.”
The NAO did make a number of recommendations to the Home Office for statistical improvements. These include adding to asylum statistics people living in National Asylum Support Service accommodation, whose right to receive support has lapsed.
