Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is to create a new independent appeals authority to dramatically accelerate the processing of asylum cases, tackling a backlog of more than 150,000 people waiting for their claims to be heard in what amounts to the biggest shake-up of the immigration appeals system in a generation.
The Independent Immigration Appeals Authority, due to be operational by late 2027, will replace the existing system with a single appeal route, cutting off the ability of those whose claims have been rejected to lodge successive further claims as a means of delaying removal. At present, the average time to clear an immigration or asylum appeal stands at 61 weeks — a figure officials have admitted is unsustainable.
The new body will fast-track the cases considered most urgent or most likely to be without merit, including those involving high-risk foreign national offenders, human rights claims judged to lack credibility, and last-ditch modern slavery claims submitted at the point of removal.
Mahmood did not mince her words in setting out the rationale for the change. “Today, our appeals tribunal is overwhelmed. As a result, people are gaming the system, lodging vexatious appeals to frustrate their removal,” she said. “Our new appeals body will ensure claims are heard swiftly and fairly. Those with a legitimate claim will get their hearing. Those who have no right to remain in this country, and are abusing the system, will be swiftly removed.”
The authority forms part of the forthcoming Immigration and Asylum Bill, expected to arrive in Parliament this week. The wider legislation contains several measures likely to generate significant debate. It will narrow the circumstances in which the European Convention on Human Rights can be invoked to block deportations, particularly around family life claims. It will also introduce tougher age verification checks to identify adults who present themselves as unaccompanied children, a category that entitles claimants to local authority support and accommodation.
Aware that the bill faces opposition from within Labour’s own ranks, Mahmood over the weekend announced new safe and legal routes for refugees as part of an effort to bring sceptical MPs onside. These include a Canada-style community sponsorship scheme allowing local organisations and trusted universities to vouch for refugees, alongside an employer-led work route for those fleeing persecution.
The reforms arrive against the backdrop of a system that has been publicly described as in crisis. Earlier this month, the Public Accounts Committee published a damning assessment of the Home Office’s handling of the asylum system, revealing that some rejected applicants had disappeared without trace and that local councils had been given no meaningful say over where asylum seekers were being placed in their areas. The committee also found that despite pledges to close asylum hotels, the Government had no clear plan for getting claimants out of them.
The Home Office last week announced it was expanding the use of former military bases to house asylum seekers, naming MOD Bicester in Oxfordshire, RAF Barnham in Suffolk and RAF Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire as new sites, while existing facilities at Crowborough and Wethersfield are to be extended. Human rights organisations have warned that military sites cause serious harm to those placed in them. Kamena Dorling, director of policy at the Helen Bamber Foundation, said: “We have repeatedly shown through clinical evidence that housing people in ex-military sites like RAF Wethersfield causes profound and long-lasting harm to their mental and physical health.”
