FASTER asylum decisions have slashed the initial application backlog but driven a surge in appeals against negative decisions, official figures revealed today.

Home Office data shows that total asylum claims in 2025 totalled 100,625, including dependants, close to 2024’s near-record levels.

Faster processing almost halved the initial decision backlog, from 124,802 to 64,426.

But the overall number of people receiving asylum support has increased slightly since Labour took office, Migration Observatory’s analysis of the data found.

Cases have shifted into the appeals system, the group warned, with Ministry of Justice data showing appeals awaiting decisions doubling to nearly 70,000 by September 2025.

The appeals backlog results from more initial decisions and a higher refusal rate.

About 80,000 initial applications were refused in 2025, up from 46,000 in 2024.

The grant rate fell to 42 per cent, compared with 47 per cent in 2024 and 76 per cent in 2022.

People awaiting appeal cannot be removed and are entitled to Home Office accommodation if destitute, often in hotels.

As of December 31, 30,657 asylum-seekers were housed in hotels — about 5,000 fewer than in September but 1,000 more than when Labour took office.

Numbers in non-hotel accommodation rose by just 2.5 per cent over the year.

A Home Office spokesperson praised the figures but acknowledged: “We must go further.”

Dr Peter Walsh of the Migration Observatory said refusal rates will “inevitably” lead to tens of thousands more appeals, adding “significant pressure to the already very stretched tribunals system.”

Overall grant rates fell steeply for several nationalities, including Syrians, Afghans and Somalis, following legislative changes in 2022 and revised Home Office country guidance.

Amnesty International UK’s Steve Valdez-Symonds said the figures “lay bare the human and financial cost of the government’s reckless use of the asylum system as a form of deterrence.”

He said: “Asylum grant rates have fallen so sharply that Iran is effectively treated as if it is becoming safer and Afghanistan as if it is safer under the Taliban.

“These obvious errors are the result of implementing measures from legislation inherited from the previous government.

“This is inefficiency, unfairness and dysfunction imposed as official policy — and it undermines confidence in the system.

“The government must urgently reverse course, repeal the harmful provisions of the 2022 Act, and create an asylum system that is fair, efficient and meets the UK’s obligations to refugees.”