Thread by @stand_for_all

In 2002 there were nearly 10,000 more asylum applications than in 2022, yet the rate for initial decisions dropped from 99% to 25% over the same period. @ZoeJardiniere is spot on. The current situation is one of the government's own making to create a perpetual scapegoat. 1/

https://twitter.com/BBCNewsnight/status/1641202696408428545

It is also worth noting that this was nothing to do with capacity. The number of caseworkers processing claims actually rose from 260 in the year ending March 2016 to 640 at the same point in 2022. What happened was that the actual processing slowed down. 2/

For example, during the period of March to March 2016 to 2022 the number of people waiting more than 6 months for a decision rose from 8,278 to 72,597. That's a big jump when you have more people processing claims unless something else is going on. 3/

It is easy to say that we are still talking about "big numbers" but it depends on your context. The UK ranks about 17th/18th for asylum applications per head of population compared to the EU 27. 4/

In 2021, when we have the most accurate comparison data for, the UK ranked 28th for refugee populations globally, and there is one doozy of a drop off from the top ten btw. Might be of interest that Rwanda, a country the size of Wales, ranked 32. 5/

Oh yes, we hear a lot in the news about the "cost of people seeking asylum", but even that could have been reduced significantly by sensible policy choices. It would have cost about £20million to have cleared the backlog last year, thereby reducing accommodation costs etc. 6/

Instead, the UK has just signed up to spend half a billion on a new detention centre in France. Now, call me picky, but I do not see how building a new detention centre in another country for people who already risk being detained if caught is helping that much. 7/

What that half a billion does do though is make headlines, like with ferries which when he was Chancellor Rishi Sunak sunk the idea due to potential costs of hundreds of thousands of pounds per hour to manage, maintain and moor. That's a choice by the government. 8/

What we are seeing right now with all the posturing of the #RefugeeBanBill, which is estimated to cost about £9billion in its first three years alone, is the same old political choice to manufacture an issue to deflect from genuine ones, such as the cost of living crisis. 9/

The asylum system doesn't need to cost billions. Thousands of people don't need to be abandoned in hotels. For a fraction of the cost we could actually have a functioning system which processed claims faster and more efficiently. That benefits everyone. 10/

That means that the billions wasted on already demonstrably unworkable and ineffective, as shown by multiple studies globally, "deterrents, detention and deportation, could be invested in communities to help develop infrastructure and help people who are struggling. 11/

It could be used to help the government hit the housing targets it basically shelved after years of never meeting them, which means more affordable housing for more people. That's kind of a good thing. 12/

Those things take time though, they take political will and planning. It requires spreading costs around other departments and focusing on things like recruitment and training. Those aren't as quick and headline grabbing as a glossy pic of people getting out of a dinghy. 13/

This is all a choice. Other countries do it and you know what, it doesn't act as a "pull factor". That's because the very same, personal, reasons which mean that you won't deter someone from seeking safety in your country also mean that there are reasons others don't want to. 14/

This government made a choice. It made a choice to make headlines and create a scapegoat rather than doing what was, and remains, needed, to ensure that everyone, local people and asylum seekers alike, have access to the support and assistance they need. 15/

To put it clearly, even the government's own widely publicised plan to speed up asylum claims actually, and inevitably, slows them down. This is all performance politics with no practical policies. 16/
theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/m…