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London pledges to speed up asylum appeals amid anti-immigration protests
The British government announced on Sunday its plan to accelerate the processing of asylum appeals, as anti-immigration protests spread across several cities in the United Kingdom. Demonstrators gathered outside hotels used to house asylum seekers, carrying slogans such as “Stop the Boats.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described the current delays in appeal procedures as “completely unacceptable.” According to official figures, around 51,000 asylum-related appeals remain pending, with an average wait time of over one year. To address this backlog, the government will establish a new independent body of “arbiters” to assist tribunals.
Authorities also plan to impose a 24-week legal deadline for appeals lodged by asylum seekers accommodated by the state, as well as by foreign offenders. One of the priorities is to expedite cases involving individuals from “safe countries.”
Cooper reaffirmed her determination to “significantly reduce the number of people in the asylum system” in order to end the reliance on hotels for accommodation by 2029.
The announcement came after a weekend of tense protests. Clashes broke out in cities including Bristol, Liverpool, and Horley, where counter-demonstrators gathered to defend asylum seekers. In Liverpool, 11 people were arrested for violent disorder or assault.
As of late June, more than 32,000 asylum seekers were being housed in hotels across the country. The High Court recently ordered the government to temporarily stop using hotels for this purpose, but Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s administration has appealed the decision. Between June 2024 and June 2025, over 111,000 people applied for asylum in the UK — a 14% increase compared to the previous year and the highest figure since records began in 2001.