Immigration campaign slams ‘£10bn shambles’

Migration Watch UK said one in four of the 660,000 decisions made on asylum claims between 1997 and 2010 led to the applicant being removed – and the cost of the asylum system, including legal aid and court costs, has reached almost £10 bn – or £2m a day – since 1999, the campaign group said.

In a study published ahead of the release of official statistics today, Migration Watch UK found that of the 660,000 cases decided in the 13-year period, 509,000 applicants remain in the UK, 243,000 legally and 266,000 illegally.

Chairman Sir Andrew Green said: “The asylum system has proved to be a £10bn shambles.

“Those who, like ourselves, are serious about protecting genuine refugees should be no less serious about removing bogus claimants and, better still, deterring them in the first place.” He went on: “The system needs to be much faster. Delays in the system leave the door open for appeals based on the right to family life without any consideration for the rights of society in general.”

“It also needed to be much tougher on the bogus. It is absurd, for example, that we should allow people who have been in Britain illegally for years to claim asylum so as to delay or prevent their removal; this now applies to almost 60 per cent of claimants.

The study also showed the cost of the asylum system since 1999 is close to £10bn, including legal aid, court costs and £2.8bn to provide temporary accommodation.