Diamond Member Pelican Press 0 Posted May 21, 2025 Diamond Member Share Posted May 21, 2025 This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up are government pledges on track? Rob England and Tom Edgington BBC Verify This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up The prime minister has made tackling ******** immigration and “restoring order” to the asylum system a priority for the government. Sir Keir Starmer has promised to “smash the gangs”. It follows predecessor Rishi Sunak’s pledge to “stop the boats”. Yet small boat crossings have reached record levels for this point in the year. Ahead of the release of the latest official numbers on Thursday, BBC Verify looks at key government pledges – from ending the use of asylum hotels to returning more failed asylum seekers. ‘End the use of asylum hotels’ Labour promised to “ This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up ” in its general election manifesto. The government wants to fulfil this pledge by the end of this Parliament – meaning by 2029, unless an early election is called. However, according to figures obtained by BBC Verify via a Freedom of Information request, the number of hotels used to house asylum seekers was higher in December than when Labour took office in July. This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up /applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png"> In July, 212 hotels were in use. By December, there were 218 – accommodating about 38,000 people. Once someone applies for asylum, they gain legal protections while awaiting a decision – including accommodation if they cannot support themselves financially. Almost everyone who arrives by small boat claims asylum – they made up a third of all asylum applications last year. Another large group of claimants were people already in the *** who had overstayed their visas. The asylum process determines whether a person can remain in the *** because they have a “well-founded fear of persecution” in their home country. Since 2020, the government has been increasingly reliant on hotels, partly because the supply of other types of asylum accommodation has not kept up with the numbers arriving in small boats. But using asylum hotels is expensive – This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up . ‘Smash the gangs’ As of 14 May, 12,699 people had arrived in the *** in small boats – up by a third compared with this time last year. To reduce the number of crossings, the government has pledged to disrupt the people-smuggling gangs behind them. This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up /applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png"> But it is unclear how the government plans to measure its progress, or when the goal will be met. The Home Office told us data on actions taken by officials to disrupt criminal gangs was “being collected and may be published in the future”. There is some information on efforts to prevent small boat crossings by French authorities – who, under a 2023 deal, are receiving £476m from the *** over three years. They say about 17,379 people were prevented from crossing between July and December 2024. We do not know what happened to them or whether they tried to cross again. There have been high-profile cases of ***-based smugglers being sentenced, This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up and raids on the continent. And at the recent ***-EU summit both sides This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up to work together on finding solutions to tackle ******** immigration. ******** migration includes people who arrive on small boats, or hidden in lorries, and people who remain in the *** after their legal visa expires. The vast majority of *** immigration is legal – this includes people who have been granted permission to come to work, study, claim asylum or for other authorised purposes. Last year, about 43,000 people entered the *** illegally – about 4% of the nearly one million people who came to the *** legally in 2024. ‘Clear the asylum backlog’ The government has also promised “ This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up “. This refers to the backlog of claims by asylum seekers who are waiting to hear whether they will be granted refugee status and be allowed to remain in the ***. Since last summer, there has been a 50% increase in decisions on asylum cases. This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up /applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png"> But despite this, the *** saw This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up across the year, meaning the overall backlog has actually risen since the election. Under Labour, 41% of asylum claims were granted between October and December 2024. This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up /applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png"> Another backlog the government wants to clear is the mountain of court appeals from asylum seekers following rejected claims. That backlog has also got worse since last summer’s election, according to the latest figures. There were about 33,000 cases at the end of June, rising to nearly 42,000 in December – the highest total since at least 2015. This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up /applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png"> ‘Increase returns’ The government has also promised to “increase returns” of people with no legal right to be in the ***. It said it would set up a new returns and enforcement unit with 1,000 extra staff. The number of returns rose by around 2,000 – from just under 22,000 to 24,000 – between July 2024 and March 2025, year-on-year. The government is meeting this pledge but it is worth noting that the majority of returns were “voluntary”, not “enforced”. Just 6,339 people were forcibly removed, which could involve being escorted onto a plane by an immigration official. Previous figures, up to December, show many of those who did leave voluntarily did so without government assistance or without its knowledge at the time, This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up . This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up /applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png"> This is despite repeated claims from ministers that the government has “removed” or even “deported” this many people. The Home Office says all returns outcomes are the result of collective efforts by the department. BBC Verify has approached the Home Office on each of the pledges to ask how the government intends to meet them. This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up /applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png"> This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up #government #pledges #track This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up For verified travel tips and real support, visit: https://hopzone.eu/ 0 Quote Link to comment https://hopzone.eu/forums/topic/255694-are-government-pledges-on-track/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
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