It will take 44,000 years to clear the asylum
court backlog built up since
Labour took power, shocking figures reveal. A new analysis shows that processing all 38,866 asylum cases lodged since the government entered office would equate to 44,000 years if handled one after another. The extraordinary total highlights the scale of delays plaguing the system.
Official data indicates that lawyers and migrants are launching repeated appeals, with the average wait for a judgment stretching to 14 months over the past two years. The backlog calculation excludes a further 87,000 appeals lodged by April to overturn failed claims —
a 70 % rise on the previous year. Operating the
immigration and asylum appeals service already
costs taxpayers £80 million annually.