True cost of Britain’s asylum system laid bare in devastating spending watchdog report

In a sample of 5,000 people who lodged claims almost three years ago, more than half were still waiting for a decision.

The NAO said the growing backlog is eroding public confidence – and causing “hardship and uncertainty” for asylum seekers.

It urged ministers to improve data collection and adopt a joined-up, whole-system approach across Government departments.

The report comes just weeks after Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s announcement of a radical asylum overhaul which removes the Government’s legal duty to guarantee support to illegal migrants in a bid to smash the “Boriswave”.

But the NAO cautioned that without a sustainable long-term plan, the proposals could trigger “unintended consequences” for services already pushed to their limit.

NAO chief Gareth Davies said: “Successfully implementing the new asylum model recently announced by the Home Secretary will require effective action on the bottlenecks in the current system using better quality data and streamlined decision-making.”

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The report found that the UK’s asylum system had no clear “ownership” or accountability across Whitehall.

Its analysis of 5,000 people who applied for asylum in January 2023 showed 35 per cent were granted refugee status, nine per cent were removed after their claims were rejected, while 56 per cent are still stuck in limbo.

Out of the “undetermined” group, one quarter are awaiting the result of their appeal and three per cent are filing more paperwork to support their claim.

The NAO also found that 41 per cent of surveyed migrants had failed to gain asylum but had not left the UK, leaving taxpayers to shoulder the “significant costs” of their accommodation and support.

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The report read: “Our analysis shows how efforts to improve the system in recent years have often been short-term and narrowly focused on one area of the system in reaction to large backlogs and sharply increasing costs.

“Increases in speed of processing have sometimes come at the expense of the quality of decisions and improvements in one area have shunted problems elsewhere.

“There has also been no realistic approach to the fact that in a significant number of cases it is not possible to return people whose claims have been refused.

“As a result, the system has incurred significant costs – primarily on accommodation and support – that might have been avoided.”

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The former director general of the Border Force, Tony Smith, previously argued that illegal migrants should be forced to repay the cost of their hotel and support fees.

He estimated that up to half the £5.4billion a year spent on processing, accommodating and supporting asylum seekers could be repaid to the Treasury.

Mr Smith said: “If they got the message that it’s not a free ride and any money that they cost the state would have to be repaid, it would act as a deterrent.

“We could also serve them notice on arrival of the costs they would incur if placed in hotels and asylum accommodation and give them the option to stay with friends or relatives as well.”

Reacting to the NAO’s review, a Home Office spokesman said: “The Home Secretary recently announced the most sweeping changes to the asylum system in a generation to deal with the problems outlined in this report.

“We are already making progress – with nearly 50,000 people with no right to be here removed, a 63 per cent rise in illegal working arrests and over 21,000 small boat crossing attempts prevented so far this year.”