Home Office loses track of nearly 6,000 asylum seekers who 'remain in the UK'

Almost 6,000 asylum seekers whose claims have been withdrawn have gone missing in the UK, ministers have admitted.

The migrants "remain in the UK and the Home Office is taking steps to urgently re-establish contact with them," the disclosure to MPs revealed.

It comes after the Commons Home Affairs Committee demanded answers after a senior Home Office official last year told members the department did not know the whereabouts of more than 17,000 asylum seekers whose claims have been withdrawn.

Labour said the news was “yet more evidence of the shocking mismanagement and chaos” in the asylum system.

In the letter to committee chairwoman Dame Diana Johnson, illegal migration minister Michael Tomlison and legal migration minister Tom Pursglove said it was “erroneous to say that the Home Office has lost the 17,316 cases that have been withdrawn over the 12 months to 30 September 2023”.

They said there were a “variety of reasons” why this decision could be made and that the majority (68%) have either “left the UK already”, submitted a fresh asylum claim or steps were being taken to “secure their removal from the UK.”

But the ministers confirmed 5,598 (32%) of those asylum seekers “remain in the UK and the Home Office is taking steps to urgently re-establish contact with them”.

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They added: “When we withdraw a claim, and if someone has no other permission to stay in the UK; funding and support stops and someone becomes liable for law enforcement activity to be removed from the UK.

“If these individuals were to make further submissions, caseworkers may consider whether their previous actions are damaging to their credibility.”

Some 5,931 (35%) are still in the UK and are in contact with the Home Office with their cases “now being managed by various teams across the Home Office including but not exclusively, Immigration Enforcement, appeals and litigation teams and further submissions”.

The letter said 3,144 (18%) of migrants who had their case withdrawn are no longer in the UK and have “no reason to have a continuing asylum claim”.

The remaining 2,643 asylum seekers (15%) are still in the UK and, in the wake of the department’s initial decision to withdrawn their claim, have “re-engaged with the Home Office and have been granted some form of lawful immigration status”.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: “This is a staggering admission that the Home Office has lost almost 6,000 asylum seekers and has no idea where they are.

“The fact that thousands of people have been allowed to effectively disappear into the underground economy or left vulnerable to exploitation by criminal gangs is yet more evidence of the shocking mismanagement and chaos in the Tory asylum system.

“Time and again ministers are spending their time on gimmicks rather than getting a grip.”

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