Tories warn the courts are getting used as a “holding pen for unlawful immigration”.
Hundreds of small boat migrants have crossed the Channel this 12 months (Picture: Getty)
Taxpayers are being left to “foot the invoice” as tens of hundreds of migrants interesting to remain in Britain don’t also have a listening to date. New information means that six out of seven asylum appeals don’t have any court docket itemizing. The Tories warned that the courts are getting used as a “holding pen for unlawful immigration” amid the delays.
There have been 69,670 asylum and immigration appeals excellent on the finish of September 2025, in accordance with Ministry of Justice information, up from 33,227 simply earlier than Labour took energy.
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However figures obtained utilizing a Freedom of Data request present solely 10,518 had been given a date, with 59,152 circumstances ready for one.
Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy stated: “The courts are getting used as a holding pen for unlawful immigration, feeding a rising court docket backlog and immense burden for taxpayers. Each week of delay is per week a elimination can’t occur, a lawyer payments the taxpayer, and the individuals who crossed the Channel illegally keep put.
“Labour have allowed this queue to develop and set themselves no goal for decreasing it. The Conservatives will shut this technique down and change it with quick, closing selections made underneath the purview of ministers.”
Shadow House Secretary Chris Philp highlighted that migrants interesting to stay within the UK will probably be housed in taxpayer-funded inns or different lodging “whereas their regularly bogus asylum appeals drag on”.
He stated: “Six in each seven asylum appellants shouldn’t have a listening to date.
“Hundreds of those primarily unlawful immigrants are persevering with to be housed in costly inns and flats whereas their regularly bogus asylum appeals drag on, in the meantime taxpayers foot the invoice.
“Labour have left each lever of the lawfare machine untouched and can by no means dismantle it as a result of the Prime Minister and the Legal professional Common spent their careers constructing it.
“Solely the Conservatives are ready to do what management requires. Via our BORDERS Plan, we’ll go away the European Conference on Human Rights and the European Conference on Motion towards Trafficking in Human Beings, ban asylum and different safety claims for unlawful entrants, set up our removals pressure, do away with immigration tribunals, improve the variety of deportations to 150,000 a 12 months, and finish the merry-go-round of appeals.”
The First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) court docket handles appeals for House Workplace immigration and asylum selections.
The typical time from lodging an attraction to a primary listening to elevated from 35 weeks in June 2024 to 54 weeks by September 2025, the information exhibits.
In the meantime, the typical time between an attraction being launched and a closing resolution being made rose from 43 weeks to 52 weeks over the identical interval.
Learn extra: Keir Starmer issued pressing migration warning as younger Brits flee the UK
It comes as greater than 8,000 small boat migrants have arrived in Britain up to now this 12 months after a busy weekend amid the heatwave. Earlier this month, the UK handed the eye-watering milestone of greater than 200,000 individuals making the crossing since information started in 2018.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to “smash the gangs” with the intention to get a grip on the Channel disaster.
He struck a “one-in, one-out” migrant returns settlement with France final 12 months, however it has failed to discourage individuals from making the journey. House Secretary Shabana Mahmood final month signed a brand new three-year £662 million cope with Paris as Britain palms over extra money within the newest bid to curb crossings.
The Labour Authorities has additionally pledged to finish using inns for asylum seekers by the subsequent election.
Figures launched final week present the variety of migrants being accommodated in inns has fallen to twenty,885 as of March 2026. However some 68,719 had been residing in homes, flats and bedsits in communities throughout the nation.
The Tories and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK have each pledged to withdraw from the European Conference on Human Rights in a bid to sort out the small boats difficulty.
A authorities spokesperson stated: “Since coming into energy, this authorities has returned and deported 67,000 unlawful migrants and overseas criminals – a rise of 41%.
“However we inherited an asylum system underneath immense stress with decision-making taking far too lengthy.
“We’re restoring order to this technique with the deployment of extra employees and further funding to maximise the variety of appeals that may be heard in tribunals.”
The immigration tribunal system has ceased to operate as an efficient authorized course of.
As an alternative it has develop into a bureaucratic holding pen that delays correct processing of circumstances whereas permitting individuals to remain in Britain who shouldn’t be right here.
The backlog has grown to staggering lengths, and as has been revealed, most circumstances haven’t even acquired a court docket itemizing – suspended in procedural limbo because the clock runs and payments accumulate.
It has develop into close to unattainable to deport those that needs to be, if they’re allowed to problem the House Workplace repeatedly by means of vexatious appeals, becoming a member of the again of a queue that may take a 12 months for a case even to be heard.
It has develop into an absolute farce. Tackling this difficulty at its core is important to gripping this disaster and eventually stopping unlawful immigration.
Solely the Conservative Occasion’s BORDERS Plan would finish this chaos by shutting down the appeals business completely.
We are going to abolish the Immigration Tribunal, finish nearly all judicial evaluate in immigration issues, and scrap authorized assist for immigration circumstances.
Choices will probably be made swiftly by the House Workplace, with solely a slender inner attraction and strictly restricted judicial oversight the place ministers act exterior the legislation.
That is the one solution to break the cycle, restore management, and cease the asylum system bleeding taxpayers dry.
And we’ll go additional. We are going to ban asylum claims for unlawful immigrants, which will probably be potential having left the ECHR and another obligation that will get in the best way, we’ll set up a removals pressure to deport all unlawful arrivals and overseas criminals inside per week.
We have to finish a system that has spent years rewarding delay and billing the general public for the privilege.
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