The newest immigration and asylum statistics have been printed in the present day. We’ve highlighted a number of the attention-grabbing information under on asylum, EU Settlement Scheme, payment waivers and scholar and work routes.
Asylum
As many have been predicting for some time now, the asylum grant rate has dropped considerably within the final three months of 2023. It’s because the Residence Workplace initially focussed on “easy grants” within the legacy backlog clearance train, leaving the extra time consuming refusals till final.
Choices had been made on 46,572 purposes (the variety of individuals is at all times larger than the variety of purposes, as some are dependant on a primary applicant) within the interval October to December 2023. Of these, an enormous 15,380 which is one third of the selections was a refusal. Of 98,199 choices made final yr, 24,027 had been withdrawals, the overwhelming majority of whom will nonetheless be within the UK and might want to re-enter the system in some unspecified time in the future.
Inadmissibility
Of the 34,113 notices of intent issued to individuals being thought-about beneath inadmissibility processes over the interval 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2023, the highest nationality by a distance is Afghanistan with 6,045 notices issued. That is because of the lack of safe routes for individuals to come back to the UK apart from making the harmful journey throughout the Channel.
Different nationalities receiving the very best numbers of those notices are Albanians with 3,869, Iranians with 3,708, Eritreans with 3,276, Syrians with 3,072, Iraqis with 2,485 and 1,885 Sudanese individuals (table Asy_09b).
Curiously, the Residence Workplace has made its first inadmissibility choice for the reason that first half of 2022, and has eliminated two individuals, the primary removals for the reason that finish of 2022. I might guess that these are individuals who maintain standing in one other EU nation, as inadmissibility returns have been made only to EU countries.
Homelessness of refugees
The newest statistics on homelessness, for the interval July to September 2023, had been additionally launched in the present day. This covers a number of the interval the place the Residence Workplace began making newly recognised refugees homeless in a lot larger numbers as a result of a change in practice mixed with an rising variety of optimistic choices.
The figures present that there was a rise of 109.1%, to 920 households, of those that had been vulnerable to being made homeless and who had been owed a prevention responsibility after being evicted from asylum lodging. The rise in these truly made homeless was 203.8%, to 2,370 households who had been owed a aid responsibility.
As anybody who adopted the protection of this within the second half of final yr shall be conscious, the issue continued to escalate and so we may even see one other substantial soar in these figures as soon as the info to yr finish is launched.
Giant drop in attendance by Residence Workplace presenting officers at asylum appeals
Knowledge on Residence Workplace presenting officer attendance at asylum attraction hearings (at table ALAR_01A) exhibits that, regardless of there being considerably fewer hearings than earlier than the pandemic, there was a drop from 99% for 2021/22 to 90% for 2022/23. A coverage choice has clearly been taken in relation to deportation appeals and attendance at these hardly ever drops under 100%. Attendance on the Higher Tribunal is 100% in all the information printed.
Except issues enhance, evidently asylum appeals could find yourself being the appellant and the choose. And that’s unlikely to end well for appellants.
Payment waivers
There was an enormous soar within the variety of excellent payment waiver purposes, with practitioners reporting that delays of a number of months are actually customary. On the finish of the identical interval in 2022, the variety of excellent payment waiver purposes was 5,460 however this had jumped to 21,578 by the top of 2023.
It’s price noting that a variety of these payment waiver purposes will relate to purposes to increase go away within the ten yr route beneath Appendix FM, and those fees did not increase in October 2023.
EU Settlement Scheme
The newest launch on the EU Settlement Scheme says that for the reason that 30 June 2021 deadline, purposes have remained regular at round 55,700 per 30 days. A few of these are late purposes, however some have been made by those that maintain pre-settled standing and are upgrading to settled standing.
Since altering how late applications are considered in August final yr, the Residence Workplace has discovered 44,460 purposes invalid beneath the brand new standards. The overall variety of late purposes deemed invalid from 1 July 2023 to 31 December 2023 is 91,610, so we are able to see that nearly half of these rejections have taken place over a interval of just a few months.
College students
There was a 5% drop within the number of students in 2023 in comparison with 2022, however that is nonetheless 70% larger than in 2019. What stays to be seen is what impression the restrictions from 1 January 2024 on the power of scholars to deliver their dependants may have on the variety of scholar visa purposes.
Work
There was a huge increase within the variety of sponsor licences granted in 2023. 42,890 choices had been made in the course of the yr, with 13,606 of these within the interval October to December 2023. The latter determine is an 81% enhance on the identical interval in 2022. Of the 42,890 choices made, 33,231 had been grants of licences.
As we already know from earlier statistics releases, there was an enormous enhance within the variety of individuals coming to work within the well being and care sector within the UK, the particular route having been designed particularly to help with shortages within the sector.
These are the figures for 2023 as an entire, however the numbers are beginning to fall, with 37% fewer grants for well being and care employees for the interval October to December than for July to September 2023. As with college students, we wait to see what impression restrictions on individuals on this route having the ability to deliver their household with them may have.
Conclusion
There are a variety of issues that the federal government appears to be storing up for later (presumably hoping issues come to a head after they’ve been voted out). Late purposes to the EU Settlement Scheme, failure to course of payment waivers at a time once we can anticipate greater than ever to be made, and just about the whole thing of the asylum system. The later the election, the extra possible it’s that they might want to cope with a few of these points whether or not they need to or not.
Serious about refugee legislation? You may like Colin’s ebook, imaginatively referred to as “Refugee Law” and printed by Bristol College Press.
Speaking necessary authorized ideas in an approachable manner, that is a necessary guide for college kids, legal professionals and non-specialists alike.
