SOARING numbers of failed asylum seekers have been able to sneak back into the UK and then been allowed to stay after making a second claim, shock figures show.
A total of 113 “boomerang refugees” lodged successful claims in a year despite being previously refused and removed from the UK.
The figures – obtained from the Home Office – show some waited years to make new claims but others were lodged just weeks after being turned down first time around.
The statistics for 2021 which are the latest available – show numbers have increased on the 39 cases in 2020. And, in 2019, when there were just 50.
In one case an asylum seeker who arrived in the UK in April 2020 had their application refused and they were returned to France in August of that year.
But just two months later they appeared back in the UK and put in another asylum claim that was rubber-stamped just ten months later.
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In another case, a claimant arrived in the UK in July 1998.
Their case dragged on until April 2007 when their first claim was rejected and they were returned to Sri Lanka.
Then 12 years later, in 2019, they returned to the UK where their application spent two years in the system before it was granted.
The data shows how in August 2010 a person was sent back to Namibia after their asylum claim was rejected only for them to arrive back in the UK eight years later and be granted asylum.
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Another case saw a person who arrived in the UK in 2013 lose their asylum claim and was removed back to Albania three years later.
However, just eight months later they landed back in the UK and lodged a second claim which was in the system for four years before being granted.
The catalogue of cases shows that these second-time asylum claims came from people who had been removed from the UK to countries all around the world including Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan, Pakistan and Albania.
Alp Mehmet, Chairman of Migration Watch UK, said: “Such reversals of earlier decisions are baffling.
“All we can assume is that failed applicants and their legal representatives learn the lessons of previous failures and modify their claims accordingly.
“No wonder we are now seen as a gullible, soft touch. And the poor old, put-upon taxpayer foots the bill.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “All asylum applications are considered on their individual merits and where issues relevant to an asylum claim have changed, such as personal circumstances or conditions in their home country, it is right we consider them carefully.
“The government is going even further through our Illegal Migration Act, which will mean that people arriving in the UK illegally are detained and promptly removed to their country of origin or a safe third country.”
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Laura Goddard
