AMNESTY International urged the government today to address a surge in the number asylum-seekers being left in limbo.

The human rights group highlighted new quarterly Home Office figures to September that showed 133,409 claimants are still waiting for an initial asylum decision.

This is a 13 per cent increase than at the end of the previous quarter in June, with the backlog of claims remaining around 80,000.

Amnesty said that data on decision-making continues to confirm that most people who seek asylum are found to be entitled to it.

Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International UK’s refugee and migrant rights director, said: “Today’s data shows a significant rise over the first three months in the number of people awaiting a decision on their asylum claims.

“The previous government left the asylum system in complete disarray by refusing to make decisions on people’s asylum claims.

“This government must ensure the system makes reliable decisions and is accessible to people at risk of persecution.

“There’s no compromising on the need for asylum in a world torn by conflict, authoritarianism and oppression.

“The UK must play its full and fair part in providing safety for people forced to flee abuses rather than continuing the last government’s long and disastrous attempt to evade this responsibility.”

It comes as Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures showed that net migration to Britain fell by 20 per cent to 728,000 in the 12 months to June this year.

They also found that net migration hit a record 906,000 in the previous year up to June 2023 after being revised up 166,000 from the initial estimate of 740,000.

Downing Street said the statistics show it inherited “a situation from the previous government where they had effectively run Britain as an experiment in open borders.”