Asylum seeker still waiting for decision from Home Office after 16 years in limbo: 'It's degrading'

An asylum seeker has waited 16 years for a decision on their claim, the longest wait on record in Home Office figures obtained by the Big Issue.

Charities slammed the wait for an initial decision, totalling 6,008 days, as an example of the UK’s broken asylum system, and said long waits harmed those seeking asylum.

A total of 19 asylum seekers have waited 10 or more years for a decision, the figures also revealed.

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“These are appalling figures, indicative of a dysfunctional asylum system that has consistently failed to make swift decisions and instead left people in a cruel limbo, stopped from working and unable to lay down roots in their communities,” Imran Hussain, executive director of external affairs at the Refugee Council, told the Big Issue. 

“The idea that someone who has fled war or persecution has to wait more than a decade for a decision on their asylum case is shameful.”

The longest time for a closed case in the past five years was 14 years, 10 months, and six days, according to data provided by the Home Office this month, but going up to September 2023.

The number of asylum seekers waiting between five and 10 years for a decision was 1,155, while 60,361 had been waiting between one and five years.

One asylum seeker, who arrived in the UK in 2018 with his wife and two children after receiving death threats in their South American home country, said a five-year wait had a ruinous impact.

“We spent year after year just waiting for the Home Office to make their decision,” he said. “The long wait has had a very negative impact on my family.

“The main issue is that as time goes by you start feeling degraded and humiliated. You don’t have any of the basic rights of other citizens.

“We live with constant stress – the Home Office might move us somewhere else at any moment.”

Asylum seekers waiting for a decision on their claim are generally not allowed to work. Instead, they receive a £49.18 weekly allowance, reduced to £8.86 if they are staying in accommodation which provides food. While they wait for a claim, the government must provide accommodation – often taking the form of controversial asylum hotels. Housing run by outsourced contractors – at a cost of billions – has been the subject of complaints around mould, rats, cockroaches, and overcrowding.

The asylum backlog has become one of the most contentious political issues of recent months. Rishi Sunak made reducing it one of his key pledges, and rapidly increased decisions at the end of 2023 led to a wave of homelessness.

But the backlog stopped falling in the first half of 2024, according to the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory. As of the end of June, 118,882 people were waiting for a decision.

Nadine Tunasi, a manager for Survivors Speak Out, said seven years waiting for her claim to be decided harmed her health.

“I came to the UK seeking safety and spent seven long years living in limbo waiting for my asylum case to be decided,” Tusani told the Big Issue.

“And I know only too well the huge cost this has on people’s health. You can’t access vital services; you can’t recover, and you can’t move on with your life.”

Waits of two to four years have become routine, said Laura Smith, co-head of legal at the Joint Centre for the Welfare of Immigrants. Smith said the charity saw clients lose hope day-by-day and even attempt suicide while they waited.

“This places people in a horrible position – fearing removal, unable to recover from trauma, and forbidden from working to support themselves. It leaves people exposed to exploitative work and trafficking in order to survive. It also leaves people separated from family members who could be eligible to join them, but are instead left in risky situations in their home country,” said Smith.

“Anyone in this position would be deeply distressed – and we have seen time and again the heartbreaking deterioration in mental health of our clients as their case drags on, the threat of removal hangs over them and they are prevented from moving on with their lives.”

The new Labour government, which came into power in July, has promised to prioritise clearing the backlog and to end the use of hotels to house those waiting for their claims to be decided.

The long waits were the clearest example of how the UK’s asylum system destroys lives, with people held in limbo and unable to live a reasonable life, said Steve Smith, CEO of the Care4Calais charity.

“The new Labour government must fix our broken asylum system from start to finish, reintroducing a sense of humanity and compassion into it,” said Smith.

“Part of that must be to start processing asylum claims again, turning the page on years of claims being held in limbo as the backlog, and the cost, rose.”

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