Overview
- The Home Office announced an independent body of arbiters to assist tribunals and a statutory 24-week deadline for specified appeals, including cases of asylum seekers housed by the government and foreign offenders, with a focus on applicants from designated safe countries.
- Officials report roughly 51,000 asylum appeals awaiting consideration with average waits exceeding one year.
- The government says 111,084 asylum applications were lodged in the year to June, up 14%, and 32,059 people were in hotel accommodation at the end of June.
- Protests at hotels used to house asylum seekers continued over the weekend in cities including Birmingham, London, Bristol, Liverpool and Horley, with police deployments and arrests reported.
- A High Court order temporarily halted use of one Epping hotel for asylum accommodation, and the government has filed an appeal.