The number of asylum appeals awaiting a hearing in the UK has surged by 51% in the past year, reaching over 90,000 cases, according to new data from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). At the end of June, the total number of appeals stood at 90,341, a significant increase from the 59,925 recorded a year earlier.
This rise indicates that the asylum backlog has largely been transferred from the Home Office to the judicial system. Following the General Election, ministers initiated efforts to clear a backlog of cases that had accumulated earlier in the process. Asylum seekers whose claims are denied by the Home Office often appeal to tribunals in an attempt to have these decisions reversed.
The MoJ's figures attribute the increase in court backlogs to the Home Office's work on resolving legacy asylum claims. Earlier this year, the Commons’ Public Accounts Committee noted that the government's asylum reforms had resulted in "repeatedly shifting backlogs rather than reducing them."
Despite the growing number of appeals, there are indications that the overall immigration court backlog may be approaching its peak. The number of new asylum cases entering the queue in the three months leading up to June decreased by 20% year-on-year, totaling approximately 11,500. Concurrently, the number of cases processed by the lower immigration tribunal rose by 43%, with just over 8,700 cases resolved.
Across all categories, the immigration courts are managing a total backlog of 155,798 cases, which includes asylum appeals, as well as appeals related to human rights and European Economic Area free movement. This represents a 47% increase compared to the previous year. The average time to clear an immigration appeal case is 65 weeks. For appeals against deportation and deprivation of citizenship, the average resolution time is approximately 105 weeks, or just over two years.