Important new immigration data from the Home Office show that the biggest group of people crossing the Channel in the early part of 2022 were Afghans. In fact, they make up one in four of all crossings via the Channel. To stave off the awful headlines this would have generated – having abandoned them in the first place – the Home Office granted asylum to 90 per cent of them.
Contrary to the governments’ rhetoric, it appears that 75% of asylum seekers overall were given asylum, which is the highest number since 1990.
The UK gave asylum to 98% of Syrians, 97% of Eritreans, 95% of Sudanese, 91% of Afghans and 88% of Iranians. And the figures show that 76% of claims from young men aged 18-29 were granted. All of these figures cast further doubt on Priti Patel’s assertion that 70% of channel crossings are economic migrants.
In fact, these figures blow holes entirely in all claims made by the right-wing press, by government ministers and their officials, since before Boris Johnson was elected when Brexit meant ‘taking back control.’. It also blows apart the entire story behind the need for the Rhanda plan. The taxpayer is being lumped with a huge bill simply to appease right-wing politicians and to keep the propaganda machine going that the government is in control.
One of the reasons for the dramatic increase of asylum applications being granted is that the UK can no longer refuse a refugee’s application on the basis they’ve already crossed into an EU country – as the UK is no longer part of the EU.
UK’s asylum backlog has continued to grow, reaching almost 110,000 people at the end of March. Driven by a decrease in decisions and an increase in applications.
Dr Peter Walsh, Senior Researcher at the Migration Observatory at Oxford: “The government has recognised three-quarters of asylum applications as valid over the last year. This is a significant shift compared to a few years ago when the majority of asylum applications were initially refused (even if many of these were later overturned on appeal). We now see majorities of positive decisions across a range of groups, from young men to older women.”
If it was up to Priti Patel, one assumes that those fleeing the regime in Afghanistan, who finally make it to the UK (because ministers openly stated they would do what they could to help) – will be flown to Rwanda. The reality is that on current numbers, immigration for whatever reason will continue to reach new records because the problem itself is not as easy as the government keeps saying it is.
For decades immigration has been hard to monitor and manage – and all governments have completely failed to keep to their promises. In the case of this government – they have outright lied about taking back control.