New from FM: First-tier Tribunal appeal receipts up 123% in a year, amid continuing concerns about Home Office decision making | Sonia Lenegan

70,000 cases is roughly 90,000 people - some of whom will be stuck in asylum accommodation while waiting for their appeal to be processed. Taking into account withdrawals, around 6 in 10 appeals are now successful.

Big jump in outstanding asylum appeals - nearly 70,000 waiting to be heard at the end of September. More than the initial decisions backlog. 60 weeks the average time to disposal. 37% of disposals now due to withdrawals - presumably as the Home Office realises how bad the decisions were.

The quarterly tribunal statistics are due out at 9.30am - these should give an update on the number of asylum appeals that were waiting to be decided at the end of September. Expecting it to be at least 10,000 more than at the end of March, when it was just under 51,000.

🔴NEW🔴 Changes to family reunion rules mean "new level of cruelty" for refugee families, experts warn. www.opendemocracy.net/en/uk-govern... @opendemocracy.net

Great to see a former Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service in the UK and chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Refugees (and my old boss) Sarah Teather joining the Lords

“Without certainty from yourself we are unable to accept your fear of return to your country as you are unable to be sure the fear on return from [persecutor] is a valid reason for fearing return to [country].” Actual sentence from asylum refusal letter.

According to an answer to a question from @sianberry.bsky.social, "Successfully integrating refugees remains a key Government priority." Then why make refugees wait up to 20 years for settlement while making it clear that protection is temporary? questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-ques...

Cost of acquiring Nauru citizenship start from $105k and it apparently takes just 3-4 months. Here's how one legal firm sells it:

Visa requirement imposed on Nauru nationals because of country's decision to introduce a citizenship by investment programme. questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-stat...

Who had a new visa requirement for visitors from Nauru? (although not, it seems, for the usual reasons of a small increase in asylum applications) questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-stat...

There’s a statement of changes to the immigration rules down on the House of Commons order paper for today commonsbusiness.parliament.uk/Document/100...

The deal builds on a March 2025 Commission proposal to boost low EU return rates. It features: 👉Obligations for those who are staying without a residence 👉Enabling return hubs 👉Imposing a system of detention & entry ban 👉Mutual recognition of return decisions 👉European return order (ERO)

🧵Today, the Council of the EU reached a deal on a new regulation establishing a common system for returns.

The Home Office have confirmed that Campsfield has reopened as a detention centre questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-stat... A good time to remind people that the UK is highly unusual in Europe as it doesn’t have a time limit on how long someone can be detained under immigration powers.

Very proud of the @naccomnetwork.bsky.social team and network for this data launch, but the reading is grim 👇🏻 In summary: hostile Government policies = increased homelessness for refugees, people seeking asylum and other migrants #EndDestitution

Refugee homelessness in UK has more than doubled in two years, charity says

GB News now broadcasting calls to remove the ethnic minority MPs from parliament

All the 'Danish model' has done is "entrench the forces and narratives driving the far-right. Its most tangible results are the harms inflicted on refugees and asylum seekers." Read Sigrid Corry's account on why the UK should not follow suit: blogs.law.ox.ac.uk/border-crimi...

A child saved, a family lost, a legacy that warns us not to make the same mistakes. With #Refugee #FamilyReunion now restricted, we must remember the human cost of separation, and our responsibility to prevent it. 🔗 Read @suelukes.bsky.social blog here: renecassin.org/from-kindert...

The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act has been given Royal Assent - www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2025/3... Which means that the Safety of Rwanda Act has been repealed, as have the elements of the Illegal Migration Act that effectively banned asylum claims being processed

From the asylum stats, the initial decision backlog is still going down, but the use of hotels has gone up again. The appeals process is increasingly the new bottleneck in the system, but the Home Office still haven't updated the appeals stats, or their quality of decision making measure.

New net migration figures at 930am. Net migration fell half a million to 344,000 in 2024 from 848k in 2023 56% of people think it went up last year 17% think stayed the same 14% think it went down 2025 figure to be lower again 16% expect that 38% think it will be up 31% about the same

UK net migration predicted to drop to pre-Brexit levels, figures show

One of the important points in the updated House of Commons library paper on the settlement changes is they can be done in the immigration rules. So very little, if any, parliamentary scrutiny despite the changes fundamentally altering peoples' rights commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...

Danish foreign minister and ex-PM Lars Løkke Rasmussen warns of need for balance & nuance on immigration & asylum "Danish model". Regrets some of harsher measures and signals of his government. NYT report notes the politics for centre-left now more contested too www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/w...

The government’s decision to halve the time limit for refugees to leave Home Office accommodation is driving people into homelessness and exploitation, according to migrant rights campaigners and homelessness charities By me, for @theleaduk.bsky.social national.thelead.uk/p/new-asylum...

Our @sundersays.bsky.social gave evidence this morning to the Justice and Home Affairs Committee Inquiry into Settlement, Citizenship and Integration - watch here: parliamentlive.tv/event/index/...

NEW: FGF proposes a 3 step plan to end use of asylum hotels by mid-2026, saving govt up to £5 billion. The report brings together ideas from @nestauk.bsky.social, @labourtogether.bsky.social, @refugeecouncil.bsky.social & housing expert Kate Wareing. www.futuregovernanceforum.co.uk/resource/res...

This is an insane way to be making policy clarifications, but the Home Sec has tweeted that the increases to settement for illegal entry will not be applied to refugees h/t @jonfeatonby.bsky.social for flagging this up

At least 160,000 people have been granted refugee status over the past five years. It now seems they are intended to be caught by the Government’s plans to make refugees wait up to 20 years for settlement - even for those just months away from ILR www.thetimes.com/article/6f83...

Our new analysis shows once the system is fully operational, 1.66-1.9m reviews of refugee status would need to be done over the first decade, resulting in a total cost of between £1.1 - 1.27bn, depending on how many people lose their protection at review.

The government’s plan to review refugee status every 30 months is unworkable and extremely costly - and applying it retrospectively to people already granted protection will make an unmanageable system even worse.

The race to the bottom…

Planning to start your Christmas shopping this weekend? I've got you covered with over 100 links to charities, museums and small businesses selling interesting things which will bring joy not landfill. #GoodGifts

My latest, for New Statesman

Even under the Conservatives they didn't apply the changes to settlement/length of leave in the Nationality and Borders Act or the automatic inadmissibility of asylum applications to people already in the UK, let along people already recognised as refugees.

The settlement consultation would seem to confirm that the switch to a 20 year route will apply to those already with refugee status. A refugee who got their status 4 years ago could, depending on timings, find themselves suddenly facing an extra 15 years, with status reviews every 30 months.

Home Office media release on new settlement rules. 5 years to settlement for family members of British citizens; BNO Hong Kong visas + public sector workers Keir Starmer's government proposes 15 year, 20 year + even 30 year settlement routes: deliberately off the charts of any precedent anywhere

Or, in the case of some refugees, increasing it from 5 to 30 years?

Home Secretary says in the foreword: "we propose to apply these changes to everyone in the country today who has not already received indefinite leave to remain... as soon as our immigration rules have changed".

Unless I'm missing something, further to the policy announcement this week a refugee who arrived irregularly could face a 30 year wait for settlement....

• Statement from Secretary of State for Home Department Shabana Mahmood MP: A Fairer Pathway to Settlement.

Worth remembering given the proposed ILR changes are going to be announced today. A "consultation" by the Home Office is usually 'this is what we want to do, how can we implement it?' rather than 'these are the various options we are thinking about, which do you prefer and why?'.

The title of the statement has been updated to A Fairer Pathway to Settlement - which makes more sense given what has been being briefed

Oh great, there's going to be another ministerial statement in the Commons with the title "asylum policy". There are three urgent questions and the business statement beforehand, so will probably start around 1pm or so.

Applying the changes to settlement to refugees already here would be particularly cruel and will create so much anxiety. @stellacreasy.bsky.social is quite right when she says "the Home Secretary needs to come clean asap as there will be refugees with jobs and mortgages that could be affected.”

Amid all the asylum reform announcements, the HO finally slipped out its asylum support rates review last week. What does this mean for child poverty?🧵 www.gov.uk/government/p...

Andy Slaughter MP also comments on the asylum reforms: "The Home Secretary...promised that anyone affected by the new regime will get legal advice. She hasn't said how much or by whom—those are questions that the committee is writing to her to ask—but that's better than it is at the moment."