Asylum system on the 'brink of collapse', MPs warn with suggestions of complete overhaul
The asylum system is on the brink of collapse as the government fails to cope with severe pressure, a cross-party committee of MPs has warned.
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The Home Office has focused on short-term fixes and does not have a clear strategy, according to a report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
The PAC said it was "shocking and unacceptable" that ministers do not even know where all failed asylum seekers are in the country, suggesting that the system needs a complete overhaul.
The Home Office told the committee, which examines the value for money of government projects, said that it only knows where the "vast majority" of failed asylum seekers are, the report said.
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Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood's shake-up of the system includes plans for people granted asylum in the UK having their refugee status made temporary and subject to review every 30 months.
Chairman of the committee, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, said: "Our report provides an end-to-end snapshot of the entire asylum system, and its findings paint a disturbing picture – at the time of our inquiry, control of it had been all but lost.
"The focus on short term, reactive fixes has left the government chasing after pressures pushed from one part of the system to the next.
"There is no clear strategy uniting these efforts, and engagement across departments and with local authorities is patchy at best.
"Given senior officials' inability to articulate what the asylum system is collectively trying to achieve, it is no wonder such a directionless bureaucracy ends with people at the heart of it either left in limbo, or lost entirely."
The report also said there was an "absence of a clear strategy" in the government’s asylum plan, adding that decisions have been "reactive and disjointed".
Labour has vowed to end the use of asylum hotels by the end of the current Parliament but the PAC said past attempts to use alternative sites have proved difficult.
Last month, Wealden District Council said it was "dismayed" to find out Crowborough Training Camp in East Sussex will have the option to remain open until 2030, well beyond the 12 months originally planned.
There have been a series of protests in Crowborough and a legal challenge from a local residents group over the scheme.
Responding to the report, a Home Office spokesperson said: "Asylum claims are down, hotel use is falling and immigration enforcement activity is at the highest level on record – with the largest number of raids and arrests ever.
"We've tracked down and removed nearly 70,000 illegal migrants and foreign criminals since the Government took office – a 41% increase.
"Any asylum seekers who break their bail conditions by absconding will be tracked down and arrested."
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: "Labour have lost total control and have now admitted they do not even know where the people ordered to leave are.
"This is what happens when a government scraps every removal mechanism it inherited and replaces it with next to nothing."
Imran Hussain, of the Refugee Council, said: "This report sets out the lasting damage inflicted on the asylum system by many years of headline-grabbing policies and short-term fixes.“It compellingly mirrors the reality that charities like ours see every day."