UK Immigration Minister Faces Backlash Over Record High Asylum Waits

The UK immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, suggested that processing asylum claims faster could encourage more people to come to the country through illegal routes, after it was revealed that the number of people waiting for an initial decision on an asylum application in the UK had reached a record high of 172,758.

The overall migration into the UK for 2022 was 606,000, which represents a 24% increase on the previous high of 488,000 last year.

The immigration minister faced a backlash from Conservative MPs and was accused of abandoning control of UK borders after the figures showed that net migration should come down.

The Home Office statistics show that the number of people waiting for an initial decision on their asylum application has increased, while the number of foreign criminals and people refused asylum removed has decreased.

Immigration is expected to be a significant political battleground at the general election expected next year.

Despite previous promises to reduce net migration to below 245,000, the Home Office spokesperson stated that they are committed to reducing overall net migration, while stopping the boats and delivering control of the borders.