Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Britain will enforce a new 24-week target for deciding certain asylum and immigration appeals, in a move the UK Home Office said will speed up deportations and reduce the cost of housing people with no right to remain in the country.
Starting this week, the First-tier Tribunal will be expected to hear new appeals within 24 weeks for non-detained foreign national offenders and people receiving asylum support and accommodation. The Home Office said the measure is meant to shorten the process for failed applicants, with current cases taking an average of 67 weeks to be decided.
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The new target will apply to asylum appeal cases submitted to the First-tier Tribunal from August 12. The Home Office said faster decisions would help free up space in taxpayer-funded accommodation and generate estimated savings of 6.9 billion pounds.
“For too long, asylum and immigration appeals have been plagued by delays, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill while cases drag on for months and sometimes years,” said Anna Turley, UK Minister for Border Security and Asylum.
“This new 24-week target will see cases resolved faster, reduce reliance on taxpayer-funded accommodation and speed up the removal of those with no right to be in the UK,” she said.
According to the latest Home Office estimates for the past year, Indians have the lowest grant rate in the UK’s asylum ranking at 1 per cent. The ranking is led by nationals of Sudan at 93 per cent and Eritrea at 87 per cent.
With more than 150,000 appeals still waiting to be heard, the Home Office said broader reform is needed so the system can deal with cases more quickly and “prevent it from becoming a barrier to removal”.
The government said the rising pressure of housing asylum seekers remains one of its most serious challenges and that it is working towards what it called a “fairer” system. “We are already working to fairly house asylum seekers across the entire country, working closely with local authorities and listening to local concerns to help reduce the impact on communities,” a UK government spokesperson said.
The Labour Party has highlighted that the number of asylum seekers staying in taxpayer-funded hotels has fallen by 35 per cent over the past year, while overall asylum support costs have dropped by 1 billion pounds since the July 2024 general election.
The Home Office said every asylum hotel will be closed by the end of this Parliament. It said fewer than 170 hotels are now in use, down from a peak of 400 in 2023.
It also pointed to the Immigration and Asylum Bill, which is going through Parliament and is set to create a new Independent Immigration Appeals Authority, or IIAA, to provide a “simpler, faster route for deciding appeals”.
The IIAA will run alongside the First-tier Tribunal for several years and gradually take on new cases so the tribunal can clear the existing backlog more quickly. Independent adjudicators working for the new body will be able to prioritise the most urgent cases and those in the public interest, including high-harm foreign national offenders and what the government described as dubious human rights claims.
Alongside the new target, the government said it is increasing capacity in the appeals system. Sitting days in the First-tier Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber are due to rise by 19 per cent this year compared with 2024 to 2025, so that more cases can be heard and decisions made faster.
Overall, the Home Office said the 24-week target, added tribunal capacity and planned structural changes are aimed at cutting long waits in asylum appeals, reducing public spending on accommodation and speeding up the removal of people whose appeals fail.
With PTI Inputs
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
