Government plans to overhaul asylum appeals system

The government is planning an overhaul of the asylum appeals system as it tries to cut the number of migrants staying in hotels while they await a ruling.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said she was taking practical steps to end unacceptable delays, with a new body, staffed by independent adjudicators, to be established.

The government has been under increasing pressure to reduce its reliance on asylum hotels, with demonstrations held across the UK on Saturday being the latest in a series of protests over the policy.

In response, the Refugee Council told BBC the best way of “getting fewer appeals is getting decisions right first time”.

Ministers have pledged to end hotel use in this Parliament – but 32,000 asylum seekers are still housed in them.

Cooper said that, while initial decisions on asylum applications had been sped up, there had been “unacceptable delays” when people who were turned down decided to appeal.

It currently takes on average just over a year for an appeal to be heard and 51,000 cases are still awaiting a decision.

During this time, failed asylum seekers are accommodated at the taxpayer’s expense.

To tackle this, a new panel of independent adjudicators will be appointed to deal with appeals, something ministers believe will act more swiftly than the courts.

The government has promised to give more details about how it will speed up cases in the autumn.

The Conservatives have said the asylum system is in chaos, while Reform UK has argued for the mass deportation of those who arrive by illegal or irregular routes.

Imran Hussain of the Refugee Council told the BBC that reducing appeals was necessary, but reducing mistakes was “the fastest way of getting the appeals backlog down”.

He claimed that about half of people get their original decision overturned through appeal because “the decision was found to be flawed in some way”.

“It’s really important that, when we’re talking about these life-and-death decisions on asylum, there is judicial oversight, so the courts can intervene if the law isn’t being kept to,” he said.

The past week has seen rising frustration over where asylum seekers are housed.

On Saturday, demonstrators gathered in parts of England including Bristol, Liverpool and London, as well as in Mold in Wales, Perth in Scotland and County Antrim in Northern Ireland.

Police stepped in to keep opposing groups separated in many places where anti-racism campaigners mounted counter-demonstrations.

A 37-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker in Bristol, and 11 arrests were made in Liverpool.

Epping, in Essex, has been a focal point for protesters since July, with thousands of people demonstrating outside the Bell Hotel after a resident asylum seeker was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in the town.

On Tuesday, the High Court granted the council a temporary injunction to block asylum seekers from being housed in the Bell Hotel, after it argued that the hotel had breached local planning controls by changing its use, resulting in events that were a public safety risk.

Those currently in residence must be moved elsewhere by 16:00 on 12 September.

The government is seeking the right to appeal against the High Court ruling.

Cooper said the government was committed to closing all asylum hotels but that it needed to happen in “a properly managed way”.

A number of other councils are reportedly considering taking legal action following the ruling, including Tory-controlled Hillingdon, which currently houses 2,238 asylum seekers.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch published an open letter urging Conservative council leaders “to take the same steps if your legal advice supports it”, while Reform UK’s Nigel Farage wrote in the Telegraph that councils controlled by his party would do “everything in their power” to follow Epping’s lead.

According to figures published by the Home Office earlier this week, 131 of more than 300 local authorities in the UK currently house asylum seekers in “contingency accommodation”, primarily made up of hotels.

Of those 131 areas, 74 are fully or partially led by Labour, 30 by the Liberal Democrats, 19 by the Conservatives, nine by the Green Party and one by Reform UK.