Returning failed asylum applicants

This NAO report examines the system for ensuring the return of failed asylum applicants, including the problems in estimating the number of failed applicants due for removal; the need for prompt action to remove failed applicants, whether the Immigration and Nationality Directorate has sufficient capacity to meet its targets; and the Directorate's arrangements for monitoring its performance.

The NAO report estimates that, at the end of May 2004, between 155,000 and 283,500 potentially removable failed asylum applicants may have remained in the UK, of whom around half went through the application process more than three years previously.

It finds that, although the Directorate has made progress, the number of people removed or returning voluntarily each month is still less than the number of unsuccessful cases, and highlights a number of areas where further improvements should be made if the Directorate is to meet its targets and reduce the backlog.

These include the need to improve the tracking and management of cases and to do more to encourage failed asylum applicants to return home voluntarily.