The British Ministry of the Interior announced its latest statistics on immigration and nationality, which showed a record accumulation of asylum applications, which exceeded the barrier of 130,000 applications, as the United Kingdom received nearly 75,000 asylum applications in 2022 only, which represents the highest number since 2002.
The British Interior Ministry indicated in its statement that those crossing the canal by small boat constituted a large percentage of the applicants last year, perhaps that percentage does not represent the majority, but they represent nearly half of the number, and this reflects the significant increase in the success of those small boats in reaching the Kingdom. United.
Asylum requests centered on ten countries, led by Albania, followed by Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Bangladesh, Eritrea, Sudan, India and Pakistan.
While Germany also received an unprecedented number of asylum requests last year, which reached 296,555 asylum requests, followed by France 179,705, then Spain 128,015.
12 thousand refugees
Regarding the statements of the British Ministry of the Interior regarding the consideration of the applications of 12,000 refugees without conducting personal interviews, Amr Smith, the Immigration and Nationality Consultant, says that this step is unprecedented on the British side, and that the Ministry may not have found other solutions in order to address the unprecedented increase in refugees. The number of refugees in Britain, and the failure of the British government to decide on asylum applications that may continue for several years to come, in addition to the criticism that the British government faces, from humanitarian and human rights associations regarding the mistreatment of refugees and the delay in considering their applications, and based on this decision, 12,000 have already been received. Asylum seekers who submitted, before July 2022, a questionnaire from the Ministry of Interior to fill in, with exemption from conducting a personal interview, and all of them are from the five countries identified by the Ministry of Interior, which are Afghanistan, Eritrea, Libya, Syria, and Yemen.
Smith indicated that the Ministry of the Interior confirmed that it will send a ten-page questionnaire to be distributed to asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Libya, Syria and Yemen, who submitted their asylum applications before last July, and enjoy very high grant rates, in an attempt to reduce the number of asylum applications after That British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged to look into all asylum applications backlog this year.
There are doubts that the government's decision in this step may lead to exempting all asylum seekers and giving them the right to reside in Britain, knowing that the Ministry of the Interior has previously denied that this step would lead to exempting asylum seekers from the required official procedures, and the ministry stated that this step is only In order to facilitate the process of applying for asylum for persons coming from the five countries mentioned above.