Asylum figures 'ignore 24,000 refugees'

Home Office statistics may under-estimate the true number of asylum-seekers in Britain by almost a third, according to an investigation yesterday.

Home Office statistics may under-estimate the true number of asylum-seekers in Britain by almost a third, according to an investigation yesterday.

The National Audit Office (NAO) described the Home Office's figures as "broadly reliable" but pointed out a series of deficiencies in how the information is presented.

Yesterday the Home Office's latest figures showed the number claiming asylum had fallen by 20 per cent over the first three months of the year. Tony Blair said the figures were proof that "the dramatic progress" made last year, when asylum applications were halved, was continuing.

According to the figures, 76,245 asylum-seekers and their dependants were being supported by the National Asylum Support Service (NASS) at the end of March while their applications were being processed.

But the NAO warned that some 24,000 others could be in the system, including 16,000 refugees being looked after by other organisations, 7,000 unaccompanied children being cared for by councils and 1,000 being supported by the Depart- ment for Work and Pensions.

The auditors accepted that the Home Office figures only related to asylum-seekers in the support service, but added: "This presentation is misleading, because it leaves out a materially significant number of supported asylum-seekers from the statistics.

"If the people supported under arrangements involving DWP and local authorities were included in the statistics, there would be a significant increase in the statistics."

The NAO also found that in 6 per cent of cases where the Home Office claimed to have removed an illegal asylum-seeker from Britain, there was no evidence to confirm this had happened.

"At some of the ports, airports and enforcement offices we visited, we found some confusion between immigration officers and enforcement officers over who was responsible for recording a removal once it had taken place," the report said.

The criticism cast a cloud over the Home Office announcement that applications, including dependants, dropped to 10,585 in January to March, compared with 13,150 in the previous quarter.

Separate data showed the number of people applying for British citizenship rose by 21 per cent to a record high of 139,315 during 2003. The number of people granted citizenship rose 3 per cent year-on-year to 124,315. In 1997, when Labour came to power, the figure was 37,010. In 1993 it was 45,795.

The Home Office said that of the 14,640 initial decisions made in the first quarter of this year, 535 (4 per cent) were granted asylum, 8 per cent were granted discretionary leave to remain in the UK and 88 per cent were refused.

There were 18,255 appeals determined by the Immigration Appellate Authority during the first three months of this year, of which 4,000 (22 per cent) excluding dependants were granted, 13,840 (76 per cent) were refused and the remainder were withdrawn.

David Davis, the shadow Home Secretary, said: "The NAO itself reports that some of the figures the Home Office has given on asylum-seekers are misleading, that there are several weaknesses in the compilation and presentation of statistics and that there is no data on whether potential asylum-seekers have decided not to claim asylum by entering Britain illegally.

"If there is no data on illegal immigrants, how can the Government claim to have the asylum system under control?"

David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, said the NAO had cleared the Government of fiddling the figures.

He said: "That really matters to me because all the opinion polls show that people do not believe that we have got a grip. We have got a long hard haul to demonstrate that we have got a grip on this."