Overview

• The government announced an independent body to accelerate asylum appeals, aiming to reduce the backlog and phase out hotel accommodation.
• Official data show 111,084 applications in the year to June and roughly 106,000 pending cases, including about 51,000 appeals with average waits of 53 weeks.
• Protests and counterprotests continued outside hotels nationwide over the weekend, with police reporting arrests, including eleven in Liverpool.
• A High Court injunction ordered asylum seekers removed from the Bell Hotel in Epping, and ministers said they will appeal the ruling.
• Political pressure intensified after a YouGov poll found 71% think the prime minister is handling hotel use badly, while critics call the reforms insufficient and embassy delays slow deportations.