Those claiming the "legacy asylum" backlog has been cleared by some kind of amnesty are clearly wrong. Not that facts matter to those kinds of people.
But, if anything, approval rates are lower. Asylum claims are being refused, not approved, without being considered properly.
Tens of thousands of asylum claims decided in weeks by the chaotic Home Office clearly cannot have been considered properly.
Being fair has never been a Home Office aim, but much less here. All that matters is Sunak being able to say he met some arbitrary target he set himself.
"In one 4-week period from November to December 2023, 20,481 initial asylum decisions were made, more than the asylum decisions made in entirety of 2021".
Almost like a prime minister has set himself some arbitrary target that needs to be met at any cost in an election year.
"The asylum grant rate in 2023 is 67%, lower than in both 2022 and 2021, which were 76% and 72%".
As I said, complete nonsense about some de facto 'amnesty'. People have been wrongly refused asylum, not granted. Home Office clearly rejected claims without considering properly.
And now tens of thousands asylum seekers whose claims have been wrongly rejected will go to court, and likely win. So much time and money wasted on all sides. Judges, yet again, forced to correct government's mistakes. All so Sunak can fool public with claims he met his 'target'.
So where did the legal experts who are meant to advise the government on policies trained? Policy ideas are fine, what you then have is to check things are legal, make appropriate tweaks so you dot all the i's and cross all the T's. Or is this a case of the legal experts doing their bit, but politicians just ignoring them.
Either way it is a MESS.
