Asylum applications up

Asylum applications are down year-on-year

Asylum applications rose 6% in May compared with the previous month.

But the year-on-year figure was down by 14%, according to figures released by the Home Office.

The provisional number of applications for May was 5,290 whereas in April it was 5,000 - the lowest figure for two years.

The number granted asylum in the initial decision-making process rose by more than 9% for the first time in 11 months, reaching 945 or 10% of the 9,645 rulings made.

A total of 26% of applicants were either granted asylum or given exceptional leave to remain in the UK at the initial stage.

High percentage refused

A total of 7,180, or 74%, of people applying for asylum were refused.

During May, approximately 8,000 appeals were entered and over half, 4,250, were referred to the Immigration Appellate Authority.

The authority made decisions on 3,235 appeals, granting asylum in 615 cases, or 19%.

The total number of asylum seekers was higher than the 5,290 recorded in the Home Office statistics as this figure does not include dependants such as spouses or children.

Backlog drops

The backlog of cases needing to be processed has dropped to its lowest level in recent years - 27,325 compared with more than 100,000 at the beginning of last year.

This follows huge government investment in the system after criticism from opposition politicians.

In July 2000 the government announced an extra £600m investment aimed at tackling asylum applications in an effort to clear the backlog of cases.

And in the past two years 4,500 new staff have been brought on board to help process asylum claims.

Applications from Afghanistan were still rising rapidly, with 900 last month or more than double the May 2000 figure.

The figure was also up by 200 on April.

The number of asylum applications from Somali nationals rose by a fifth last month to 495, the second-largest group by nationality.