Thousands of asylum claims unresolved after three years, damning spending watchdog analysis finds
As the government struggles to reduce the backlog, new analysis of Home Office data shows thousands of asylum claims remain unresolved after three years.
The National Audit Office (NAO) found that almost half, or 56 per cent, of the 5,000 people who made their first asylum claim in January 2023 did not receive their final result by September 2025.
The report published on Wednesday stated that the asylum applications of approximately 2,812 people could not be resolved. Of those whose cases were not resolved, 1,369 were withdrawn, disqualified or suspended.
NAO chief analyst Ruth Kelly said the watchdog was counting these cases as unsolved because the Home Office did not know what happened to these asylum seekers or where they were.
A quarter of the 5,000 cases were awaiting an appeal decision and only nine per cent (452) had been deported from the UK after their applications were unsuccessful.
The NAO also criticized the Home Office for poor data records, leaving policymakers and the public in the dark on important issues.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs increased the number of initial asylum decisions made; The number of cases awaiting initial evaluation has decreased by 54 percent, reaching a peak of 134,046 in June 2023.
But this has shifted much of the backlog to the appeals stage, where asylum seekers challenge the initial decision in court.
It also shifted housing pressures from asylum hotels to local authority homeless shelters; Those who were evacuated from hotels due to unsuccessful requests are now waiting for help from municipalities.
As a result, the first-tier immigration court, which considers asylum applications, is now under serious pressure. The NAO stated that as of May 2025, the court’s caseload includes approximately 51,000 asylum objection cases; This figure increased by 88 percent compared to March 2024.
There were also approximately 22,000 cases in the UK based on Human Rights claims, such as the defense of the right to family life; This figure increased by 68 percent compared to March 2024.
Ms Kelly said a “serious lack of capacity” of judges to hear appeals and insufficient legal aid had led to delays, adding: “We are seeing an increase in the number of asylum seekers representing themselves in appeals, which is causing delays and problems in the process.”
Enver Solomon, Chief Executive of the Refugee Council, said: “These findings reflect what we see every day across our frontline services: an asylum system that is not working, people waiting months or even years for a decision, local councils are under-resourced and costs continue to rise.”
He said it was “shocking” to find so many people were still awaiting the outcome of their asylum claims, adding: “We support people who have fled untold horrors in places like Sudan and Afghanistan and want nothing more than to rebuild their lives, but delays, bottlenecks and system failures are pushing them into uncertainty, poor health and often homelessness.”
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood last month announced radical reforms inspired by Denmark to “restore order and control” to the UK’s asylum system.
According to plans, refugee status will become temporary and will be subject to review every 30 months; The refugees will be deported as soon as their home countries are deemed safe. The waiting period for permanent settlement will also quadruple to 20 years.
Asylum seekers whose requests are rejected will also be limited to making a single objection against their deportation, instead of being able to raise more than one objection on different grounds.
Independent has previously revealed how thousands of asylum claims were removed from the system for reasons such as claimants failing to attend interviews or appointments and failing to complete new “expedited” questionnaires.
According to official guidance seen by this newspaper, applications can be withdrawn by the Ministry of Internal Affairs without the consent of asylum seekers.
Citing glaring data gaps, the NAO report said: “The Home Office does not hold data on how many people linked to rejected claims are living in the community and required to report regularly, or how many have evaded the immigration system. It also does not know how many of these people continue to receive accommodation or other support.”
The watchdog estimated that the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice had spent around £4.9bn on asylum in 2024/25, but the cross-government spending was unclear.
Migration Observatory’s senior researcher Dr. Peter Walsh said the NAO report confirmed two challenges highlighted in the centre’s recent work: the failure to remove people whose claims were rejected and “persistent gaps in data that are disrupting system-wide planning”.
He added: “These structural issues contribute to rising caseloads, high housing costs and long waits for decisions.”
NAO chief executive Gareth Davies said: “Our analysis shows that efforts by successive governments to improve the efficiency of the asylum system have often been short-term and narrowly focused, responding to backlogs and rising costs.
“Successful implementation of the new asylum model recently announced by the home secretary will require effective action on bottlenecks in the current system, using better quality data and streamlined decision-making.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “The Home Secretary recently announced the most sweeping changes to the asylum system in a generation to tackle the problems outlined in this report.
“We are already making progress, with the removal of nearly 50,000 people who have no right to be here and a 63 percent increase in illegal labor arrests.”
