Sunak unveils plans to tackle UK’s backlog of asylum claims

Bloomberg

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak unveiled plans to tackle the UK’s swelling backlog of asylum claims including making it harder for arrivals from Albania to stay in Britain.
The premier unveiled a five-point plan to bear down on what he called “illegal migration,” saying it’s “unfair” that people enter Britain “illegally,” because it takes capacity away from processing “genuine” claims. He also told the House of Commons that he’s struck a deal with Albania to cut down on the growing influx of arrivals from what is a “safe, prosperous European country.”
Sunak is trying to tackle a backlog in processing asylum seekers that’s swelled to more than 120,000 as officials struggled to keep up with the growing number of arrivals in small boats from France that the government blames on criminals. The prime minister pledged to eliminate the backlog in processing claims by the end of next year.
“It is not cruel or unkind to want to break the stranglehold of criminal gangs who trade in human misery and who exploit our system and laws,” Sunak said. “Enough is enough.”
Sunak said that under his plan: The government will establish a new, permanent operation to clamp down on immigration across the English Channel. National Crime Agency funding will be doubled, and it will get 700 more staff. Immigration officers will increase raids targeting illegal working by 50%.
The government will house asylum seekers in disused holiday parks, former student halls, and surplus military sites as it aims to end spending £5.5 million a day using hotels. Sunak said ministers have already identified locations to accommodate 10,000 people.
The government is doubling the number of asylum caseworkers as it aims to process claims in days or weeks, not months or years. The UK will embed border force officials in Albania and raise the threshold arrivals have to meet to be considered a victim of modern slavery. “As a result of all these changes, we will triple the productivity of our case worker, and we expect to abolish the backlog of initial asylum decisions by the end of next year,” Sunak said.

‘Broken’ System
But opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer said Sunak’s announcement is “designed to mask failure, to distract from a broken asylum system that can’t process claims, can’t return those with no right to be here and can’t protect our borders.”
The premier also pledged to deliver on former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s flagship plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda — a proposal that’s been held up by a series of legal challenges.
Sunak is responding to mounting pressure from inside his own Conservative Party to tackle the asylum crisis, amid a surge in boat crossings to the UK that saw more than 33,000 people arrive on the country’s south coast in the first nine months of the year, a third of them from Albania.
Tory MP Lee Anderson wrote in the Mail that Sunak’s administration was losing control of the situation and his own party has let the British public down on immigration. Meanwhile, Home Secretary Suella Braverman — whose remit includes tackling immigration — has used inflammatory language, describing the influx as an “invasion on our southern coast,” and taking particular aim at asylum-seekers coming from Albania.
Braverman’s comments sparked backlash from Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, who last week said the UK has failed to take the issue of rising asylum-seekers seriously for years. He accused Sunak’s government of trying to create a narrative that blames his country.