‘Meritless’ Four-in-Five Last Minute Migrant Appeals Rejected

Some four in five last-minute legal attempts by illegal aliens and foreign criminals to avoid deportation end in rejection, in what ministers say exposes the extent to which activist lawyers and migrants try to abuse the law.

Home Office research found that more than 70 per cent of those detained under immigration offences since 2017 have put in fresh appeals days before they were scheduled to be deported. Such offenders include those entering the country illegally, foreign nationals who have committed crimes and are scheduled for deportations, and those breaching or overstaying the terms of their leave to remain.

Of those applicants, four in five are rejected. However, the process of waiting for a decision means that claimants who should have left can stay in the UK for additional months, sometimes up to 18 months, according to Home Office statistics reported by The Times on Sunday.

Ministers reportedly said the figures expose the number of “meritless” cases going through British courts.

The report comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government said that new immigration legislation would stop activist lawyers from lodging judicial reviews of “hopeless claims that have already been adjudicated by tribunal judges which frustrate removals at the last minute”.

According to a report from Saturday, of the 5,500 judicial reviews since 2012 — a “vast majority” of which were related to immigration and asylum — just 12 were successful.

Last month it was revealed that there was a recording-breaking 64,041 asylum seekers in the UK awaiting their first decision. Figures from January also revealed that deportations of foreign criminals fell by 79 per cent last year.

Minister for Immigration Compliance and Justice Chris Philp said, according to The Times: “These last-minute claims waste the time of judges and our courts and delay the process of assessing claims from the most vulnerable.

“This is why we will comprehensively overhaul our asylum system and build one which is fair but firm. This will allow us to better protect and support those genuinely in need but remove more easily from the UK those with no right to be here.”

The figures seen by the newspaper of record also revealed an increase of claimants alleging that they were victims of modern slavery, rising from three per cent in 2019 to 16 per cent.