Rishi Sunak pledges more staff to help clear asylum backlog

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Chris Mason challenges Rishi Sunak over plans on processing asylum claims

Rishi Sunak has promised more staff to help clear the UK's backlog of asylum claims by the end of next year.

Downing Street later said the pledge was not to abolish current backlog of initial decisions — only claims made up to the end of June.

Under a plan unveiled by the prime minister, a dedicated unit of 400 specialists will be set up to handle claims from Albanians.

Refugee charities branded the plans «cruel» and «ineffective».

The asylum backlog has ballooned in recent years, with 117,000 outstanding claims, relating to 143,377 people, who are waiting for an initial decision on their application and unable to work. Of these, nearly 100,000 people have been waiting more than six months.

In the Commons, Mr Sunak said the government expected to «abolish the backlog of initial asylum decisions by the end of next year».

The prime minister's official spokesman later said this pledge only related to claims made before 28 June, when the Nationality and Borders Act came into force. He said this consists of 92,601 initial asylum claims.

Labour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said Mr Sunak's pledge was «already falling apart just hours after he made it».

With pressure building on the Home Office to tackle the issue, Mr Sunak has labelled the small boats crisis a priority for his premiership.

More than 40,000 people have crossed the Channel in small boats so far this year — the highest number since figures began to be collected in 2018.

There has been a rapid increase in the number of Albanians crossing the Channel and this nationality now make up 35% of arrivals.

Ministers have singled out Albanian migrants,