BRITAIN’S asylum system has been “left to crumble because the Tory government is more concerned with creating a cruel and expensive hostile environment than investing in a workable system,” campaigners charged today.

The damning intervention came after a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) audit identified significant systemic failings which are putting officials and refugees at risk.

Home Office staff are being forced to do “too much, too quickly and with inadequate training,” stressed the agency, which warned it had either seen or been told about “numerous risks to the welfare of asylum-seekers,” including trafficking cases being overlooked and victims of torture being detained.