The home secretary is set to introduce a new fast-track scheme to tackle the asylum backlog so that decisions can be made in weeks rather than years.
As the pressure to cut the number of people waiting in hotels for asylum decisions grows, Yvette Cooper is expected to introduce a new law this autumn to overhaul the appeal system.
It comes as the first 60 migrants were moved into the four-star Britannia International Hotel in Canary Wharf, east London, on Friday night under cover of darkness.
There was a small anti-migrant protest outside the Britannia on Saturday afternoon, while much bigger groups of both anti-migrant and anti-fascist protesters congregated outside the Thistle City Barbican Hotel in central London, which also houses asylum seekers, and in the centre of Manchester where hundreds of people marched as part of a protest organised by Britain First, a far-right group.
Anti-immigrant protesters in Manchester
JAMES SPEAKMAN FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES
JAMES SPEAKMAN FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES
Home Office figures show that more than 25,000 migrants have attempted to cross the Channel to the UK in small boats this year — the earliest the figure has been reached.
Cooper will also tighten the rules surrounding the interpretation of “exceptional circumstances” in immigration cases and the use of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the right to family and private life.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, Cooper said: “We need a major overhaul of the appeal [process] and that’s what we are going to do in the autumn … if we speed up the decision-making appeal system and also then keep increasing returns, we hope to be able to make quite a big reduction in the overall numbers in the asylum system, because that is the best way to actually restore order and control.”
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, said that the changes would come into force in the autumn
BENJAMIN CREMEL/WPA/GETTY IMAGES
• Migrants kept in hotels despite losing claims for asylum
A source familiar with the plans said the aim would be to compress the process so that decisions and returns could be “made within weeks”. It is understood the system would look similar to a scheme Labour operated while last in government, which was abandoned after judges ruled it was “structurally unfair” after about 99 per cent of claims were refused.
Asylum seekers who are refused sanctuary in Britain are seeing their appeals take an average of 54 weeks to be heard. There were 50,976 outstanding appeals as of March, which is almost double the number compared with 2024 and seven times higher than in 2023, figures show.
It is the highest the backlog has ever been and comes on top of the almost 79,000 asylum claims awaiting an initial decision.
Residents at the Thistle City Barbican hotel in central London watch from their windows…
LUCY NORTH/PA
… as anti-immigration protesters gather outside.
PA
Some protesters and counter-protesters clashed with police
While they wait, many asylum seekers receive state support in the form of accommodation such as hotels — with a bill of £2.1 billion for the taxpayer in the year to March — and a weekly allowance of between £8.86 and £49.18 per person depending on other support. Those who register appeals are entitled to legal aid, at about £820 a case.
Of those who received an initial asylum decision in the year to March, just under half (49 per cent) were granted asylum. In the year to March 2024, it was 61 per cent.
The proposed changes will cap a series of announcements this summer aimed at restoring order and control in the system.
This weekend, Cooper has announced plans to outlaw social media adverts promoting journeys on small boats to asylum seekers or jobs in the black market aimed at luring migrants to the UK. Offenders could receive up to five years in prison and a hefty fine.
Home Office analysis shows that approximately 80 per cent of migrants arriving via small boats told officials that they used social media during their illegal journey to the UK, including to locate or communicate with an agent or facilitator associated with an organised crime group.
Under an amendment to the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill going through parliament, a new UK-wide offence will be introduced to criminalise the creation of material for publication online which promotes or offers services facilitating a breach of UK immigration law. This could include small boat crossings, the creation of fake travel documents like passports or visas or explicitly promising illegal working opportunities in the UK.
Cooper said: “Selling the false promise of a safe journey to the UK and a life in this country — whether on or offline — simply to make money, is nothing short of immoral.
“These criminals have no issue with leading migrants to life-threatening situations using brazen tactics on social media. We are determined to do everything we can to stop them — wherever they operate.
“We have to stay one step ahead of the ever-evolving tactics of people-smuggling gangs and this move, part of our Plan for Change to boost border security, will empower law enforcement to disable these tactics faster and more effectively, ensuring people face proper penalties.”
The government’s “one in one out” deal with France is also expected to begin in the coming weeks, with people arriving in the UK via small boats being returned to France in exchange for the UK accepting an asylum seeker from France who can demonstrate a genuine family connection to Britain.
According to The Times, the pilot scheme is expected to see only up to 50 asylum seekers a week being returned to France, with the same number coming in exchange to the UK. However, Cooper disputed the figure and said: “We are not fixing numbers. We’re very clear we want to operate this as extensively as possible.”
• ‘One in, one out’ migrant deal: what are the key plans?
Sir Keir Starmer and his government are under pressure on immigration
JAMES SPEAKMAN FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES
Introducing a fast-track scheme to process asylum decisions is expected to require an injection of cash from the Ministry of Justice to increase the number of judges and court sitting days.
Spelling out her ambition to the home affairs select committee in June, Cooper said: “One of the things I have always been keen to do is to have a system for fast-track decisions and appeals.
“If people arrive from predominantly safe countries, they should not be sitting in the asylum system for a long time. We should be able to take those decisions really quickly, and make sure that those people go through the appeals system really quickly and are returned really quickly as well. That would mean a fast-track system alongside the main asylum system, and it would be really important in making sure that the system is fair. It will require legislation in order to be able to do that, as well as new system design … I think there should be faster tracks for those cases so that we can get them through the system really quickly.”
Last week, as he arrived for a visit to Scotland, President Trump said the “invasion” of migrants is “killing” Europe and told politicians to “get their act together”.
Responding to his claims, Cooper blamed the previous Conservative government. “We inherited a broken immigration system and a broken asylum system,” she said. “And what we’re doing is putting in place the foundations to restore order and control to both systems.”