Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is to establish a new independent body to accelerate asylum appeal decisions and cut through a backlog of more than 150,000 cases, in the most sweeping overhaul of the immigration appeals system in years, the Mirror can reveal.
The Independent Immigration Appeals Authority, to be in place by late 2027, will create a single appeal route designed to prevent asylum seekers from lodging successive claims to delay removal. Under the current system, those whose claims are rejected can appeal and then bring further claims about fresh matters before being removed — a process that has pushed the average case clearance time to 61 weeks. Officials have acknowledged the scale of the caseload cannot be sustainably managed within the existing framework.
The new body will prioritise high-risk foreign offenders and human rights claims considered to be without merit, including last-ditch modern slavery claims lodged at the point of removal.
Mahmood said: “Today, our appeals tribunal is overwhelmed. As a result, people are gaming the system, lodging vexatious appeals to frustrate their removal. Our new appeals body will ensure claims are heard swiftly and fairly. Those with a legitimate claim will get their hearing. Those who have no right to remain in this country, and are abusing the system, will be swiftly removed.”
The measure will form part of the Immigration and Asylum Bill expected to come before Parliament this week. The wider legislation will include restrictions on how the European Convention on Human Rights can be used to prevent deportations, with rules around family life claims to be narrowed. More stringent age checks to identify adults posing as unaccompanied children are also included, along with new safe and legal routes for refugees — including a Canada-style community sponsorship scheme and an employer-led work route — designed to win over Labour MPs who may otherwise oppose the reforms.
The bill is expected to face resistance from within Labour’s own ranks. Over the weekend Mahmood announced the new refugee pathways in an apparent attempt to shore up support ahead of the legislation’s introduction.
The announcement comes after a damning report from the Public Accounts Committee earlier this month described an asylum system in crisis, revealing that some asylum seekers had vanished without trace after their applications were rejected and that local authorities had no meaningful say over where people were being housed. The committee also warned that despite Keir Starmer’s pledge to shut asylum hotels before the end of this Parliament, the Government had no clear plan for moving people out of hotel accommodation.
The Home Office last week announced plans to expand the use of former military sites to house asylum seekers, including MOD Bicester in Oxfordshire, RAF Barnham in Suffolk and RAF Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire, as well as extending existing asylum sites at Crowborough until 2030 and Wethersfield beyond 2027.
Human rights organisations have raised concerns about the use of military sites. Kamena Dorling, director of policy at the Helen Bamber Foundation, said: “We have repeatedly shown through clinical evidence that housing people in ex-military sites like RAF Wethersfield causes profound and long-lasting harm to their mental and physical health.”
