JUST 4,000 criminal migrants sent back home last year as Rishi Sunak faces fresh pressure over a new record high backlog.
Damning stats out today showed staggering numbers of people came to Britain in the last year – but few criminals were booted out.
Just 4,193 wrong-uns were sent back home – an increase on the year before but still thousands fewer than before the pandemic.
Most of them (72 per cent) were foreign national offenders who had committed horrific crimes.
The asylum backlog in the UK has now hit a record high too – giving the PM a fresh headache as he battles to stop the boats and push down the number of legacy cases.
It came as another 345 migrants made their way to the UK yesterday – making the last fortnight the worst this year.
The huge data dump from the Home Office also revealed:
- A whopping 78,000 asylum applications were made in the last year – the highest number in TWO decades
- Half a million people were offered a visa after fleeing from Ukraine, Hong Kong, or were resettling with family
- 125million people arrived in the UK to visit, live or work last year – almost twice as many as the year before where travel had been hit by Covid
- 3.2million visas were granted last year – 58 per cent higher than the year before
- A staggering 900,000 of those were visitor visas – with work visas up by two thirds to 530,000 and study visas up a third to 650,000
- Family visas also doubled to 75,000 as yet more partners came to join their other halves in the UK
- The cost of the UK's asylum system has almost doubled in just a year – as so many more people have come here
The staggering numbers come despite the Government repeatedly promising to lower the number of people coming to the UK.
Rishi Sunak has repeatedly refused to commit to slashing net migration to the tens of thousands (under 100,000) – a promise made in the Tory manifesto.
But now he is only promising to cut it to below the number he inherited when he got into No10 last November.
Critics say that increasing numbers of people coming to the UK is only piling more pressure in Britain's housing system, NHS and other services.
Alp Mehmet, Chairman of Migration Watch UK hit out at the latest stark stats, saying: "These are damning figures and a stark reminder of the scale of the government’s failure to control, let alone reduce, immigration.”
"Indeed their policies have driven much of the uncontrolled increase. No doubt the public will bear this lamentable performance in mind when it comes to casting their vote at the next election."
Stephen Kinnock, Labour's shadow immigration minister, added: "These new statistics set out in stark terms the complete chaos the Tories have created in the immigration and asylum system.
"The asylum backlog has reached a new record high, with 175,000 people now waiting for decisions.
"With this level of mismanagement, there is very little prospect of reducing the eye-wateringly high bill for hotel rooms for all those left in limbo, currently costing the British taxpayer £6 million a day."
Cost of crisis
The total cost of the asylum has now reached £3.97bn a year – up from £2.12 billion in 2021/22.
In stark contrast, in 2012/13, the total was just £500 million.
Millions of pounds every day is spent putting up asylum seekers in hotels while they wait for their cases to be decided.
And the number of people coming to the UK in small boats has continued to grow.
Backlog up
The backlog of people waiting for a decision on whether they can stay in the UK has reached a new record high, the Home Office said today.
175,000 people were waiting for their initial decision – up 44 per cent from the year before.
It's the highest figure since 2010 when the current records began.
The PM has vowed to eradicate the legacy backlog by the end of the year – the group of 90,000 people who have been waiting the longest for decisions.
But the stats also showed that a huge seven in ten people were having their asylum applications rubber-stamped – up from around 30 per cent in previous years.
Visas increased
More skilled worker visas were issued in the last 12 months in a bid to fill gaps in the UK's economy.
They were up by a third – with half a million people arriving to work in the last year.
Study visas were also up by a third to 627,000 as people flocked here to study post-pandemic.
The news comes after plans to slash the number of dependent visas who can come to the UK.
Tory MP Jonathan Gullis, said: "A lot of people will rightly be concerned to see another huge rise in skilled worker visas particularly as the thresholds in education have been reduced, so we will probably be continuing to rely on cheap foreign labour into the future, whenever there is a shortage.
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A Home Office spokesperson said of the news out today: “The government’s focus is clear – we must stop the boats and prevent the unacceptable number of people risking their lives by making these dangerous and illegal crossings, which continue to place an unprecedented strain on our asylum system.
“We’ve transformed our immigration system to work in our best interests by encouraging the best and brightest to come to the UK, to support the growth of the economy and boost prosperity, and we remain absolutely committed to reducing levels of immigration into this country.”
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