Home Office Loses Nearly 6,000 ‘Withdrawn’ Asylum Applicants

The Home Office has lost contact with almost 6,000 people whose asylum claims were “withdrawn” in the year ending Sept. 2023, immigration ministers told MPs. The revelation was made in a letter to Home Affairs Committee Dame Diana Johnson after a Home Office official couldn’t tell the committee where the 17,316 withdrawn asylum applicants were when quizzed in November last year, leading to media reports saying the department had lost them. In the letter, sent to the committee last week and published on Wednesday, legal migration minister Tom Pursglove and illegal migration minister Michael Tomlinson said it’s “erroneous” to accuse the Home Office of losing all 17,316 people, but confirmed the department has lost contact with almost a third of them. ...