Andy Burnham and Shabana Mahmood are battling a growing backlog in the first-tier tribunal responsible for immigration and asylum cases.
Labour’s asylum crisis is intensifying (Image: Getty)
Labour’s migrant crisis is intensifying as the number of appeals waiting to be heard surged to a new record of more than 150,000. Andy Burnham and Shabana Mahmood are battling a growing backlog in the first-tier tribunal responsible for immigration and asylum cases.
Some 156,000 cases are waiting to be heard, an increase of 48%, Ministry of Justice figures show. And the length of time taken to close a case has surged to a staggering 65 weeks, prompting renewed fears ministers will not be able to remove tens of thousands of failed asylum seekers, national security threats and foreign criminals.
Asylum appeals are now taking, on average, more than a year and a half to be heard – 13 weeks longer than it did 12 months ago.
Some 90,341 asylum appeals are waiting to be heard, up from just 7,601 in the first three months of 2023.
And the number of migrants using human rights laws to contest their removal has surged from 13,041 to 31,459.
This is a breaking story. More to follow.