Tories warn the courts are being used as a “holding pen for illegal immigration”.
Thousands of small boat migrants have crossed the Channel this year (Image: Getty)
Taxpayers are being left to “foot the bill” as tens of thousands of migrants appealing to stay in Britain do not even have a hearing date. New data suggests that six out of seven asylum appeals have no court listing. The Tories warned that the courts are being used as a “holding pen for illegal immigration” amid the delays.
There were 69,670 asylum and immigration appeals outstanding at the end of September 2025, according to Ministry of Justice data, up from 33,227 just before Labour took power.
But figures obtained using a Freedom of Information request show only 10,518 had been given a date, with 59,152 cases waiting for one.
Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy said: “The courts are being used as a holding pen for illegal immigration, feeding a growing court backlog and immense burden for taxpayers. Every week of delay is a week a removal cannot happen, a lawyer bills the taxpayer, and the people who crossed the Channel illegally stay put.
“Labour have allowed this queue to grow and set themselves no target for reducing it. The Conservatives will shut this system down and replace it with fast, final decisions made under the purview of ministers.”
Tory Nick Timothy warns the courts are being used as a ‘holding pen for illegal immigration’ (Image: PA)
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp highlighted that migrants appealing to remain in the UK will be housed in taxpayer-funded hotels or other accommodation “while their frequently bogus asylum appeals drag on”.
He said: “Six in every seven asylum appellants do not have a hearing date.
“Thousands of these mainly illegal immigrants are continuing to be housed in expensive hotels and flats while their frequently bogus asylum appeals drag on, meanwhile taxpayers foot the bill.
“Labour have left every lever of the lawfare machine untouched and will never dismantle it because the Prime Minister and the Attorney General spent their careers building it.
“Only the Conservatives are prepared to do what control requires. Through our BORDERS Plan, we will leave the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, ban asylum and other protection claims for illegal entrants, establish our removals force, get rid of immigration tribunals, increase the number of deportations to 150,000 a year, and end the merry-go-round of appeals.”
The First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) court handles appeals for Home Office immigration and asylum decisions.
The average time from lodging an appeal to a first hearing increased from 35 weeks in June 2024 to 54 weeks by September 2025, the data shows.
Meanwhile, the average time between an appeal being launched and a final decision being made rose from 43 weeks to 52 weeks over the same period.
It comes as more than 8,000 small boat migrants have arrived in Britain so far this year after a busy weekend amid the heatwave. Earlier this month, the UK passed the eye-watering milestone of more than 200,000 people making the crossing since records began in 2018.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to “smash the gangs” in order to get a grip on the Channel crisis.
He struck a “one-in, one-out” migrant returns agreement with France last year, but it has failed to deter people from making the journey. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood last month signed a new three-year £662 million deal with Paris as Britain hands over more money in the latest bid to curb crossings.
The Labour Government has also pledged to end the use of hotels for asylum seekers by the next election.
Figures released last week show the number of migrants being accommodated in hotels has fallen to 20,885 as of March 2026. But some 68,719 were living in houses, flats and bedsits in communities across the country.
The Tories and Nigel Farage‘s Reform UK have both pledged to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights in a bid to tackle the small boats issue.
A government spokesperson said: “Since coming into power, this government has returned and deported 67,000 illegal migrants and foreign criminals – an increase of 41%.
“But we inherited an asylum system under immense pressure with decision-making taking far too long.
“We are restoring order to this system with the deployment of additional staff and extra funding to maximise the number of appeals that can be heard in tribunals.”
Comment by Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy
The immigration tribunal system has ceased to function as an effective legal process.
Instead it has become a bureaucratic holding pen that delays proper processing of cases while allowing people to stay in Britain who should not be here.
The backlog has grown to staggering lengths, and as has been revealed, most cases haven’t even got a court listing – suspended in procedural limbo as the clock runs and bills accumulate.
It has become near impossible to deport those who should be, if they are allowed to challenge the Home Office repeatedly through vexatious appeals, joining the back of a queue that can take a year for a case even to be heard.
It has become an absolute farce. Tackling this issue at its core is essential to gripping this crisis and finally stopping illegal immigration.
Only the Conservative Party’s BORDERS Plan would end this chaos by shutting down the appeals industry entirely.
We will abolish the Immigration Tribunal, end almost all judicial review in immigration matters, and scrap legal aid for immigration cases.
Decisions will be made swiftly by the Home Office, with only a narrow internal appeal and strictly limited judicial oversight where ministers act outside the law.
This is the only way to break the cycle, restore control, and stop the asylum system bleeding taxpayers dry.
And we will go further. We will ban asylum claims for illegal immigrants, which will be possible having left the ECHR and any other obligation that gets in the way, we will establish a removals force to deport all illegal arrivals and foreign criminals within a week.
We need to end a system that has spent years rewarding delay and billing the public for the privilege.