Fury as almost ‘1,000 migrants a year’ vanish before their asylum claims are processed

Comment now

ALMOST 1,000 migrants a year on average are absconding before their asylum claim has been processed, a Sun investigation has found.

Britain’s creaking asylum system has seen 4,838 migrants slip between the cracks in the last six years.

Only a third of them were later located, with 3,158 still missing as of January.

The data, which covers the period January 2020 to December 2025, was obtained from the UK Immigration Enforcement’s live operational database via a Freedom of Information request.

It includes asylum seekers who escaped from port or immigration detention, as well as those on immigration bail – such as visa overstayers or foreign criminals released from prison – who failed to comply with reporting conditions.

They are officially recorded as absconders once all efforts to contact them have been exhausted.

Most read in The Sun

MISSILE MAYHEM

Ukraine ‘kills Hero of Russia general’ in strike on base

FEELING LUCKY?

Winning Set For Life numbers for Monday September 14 £10k a month jackpot

SICK TRICK

‘Cat in the hat’ trend police warning after teen girl chased by costumed creep

DATE PREDATOR

From posh meals to savage beatings… speedboat killer Jack Shepherd exposed

“Illegal immigration is putting the British public in danger. We must leave the ECHR and any other obligation that gets in the way so we can deport all illegal immigrants and foreign criminals.

“We must double the funding for Immigration Enforcement so they have the resources they need to track down and remove those with no right to be here. It is a shame Andy Burnham and Shabana Mahmood are too weak to do this.”

The Home Office insists that migrants who fail to comply with the asylum process face having their claim implicitly withdrawn and losing asylum support.

But there is nothing to stop them later resurfacing and making a fresh claim on human rights grounds – adding to the ever-growing asylum backlog.

In one case, absconder Gentian Hallaci, who entered the UK illegally, fought the Home Office at an immigration tribunal after it rejected his application to remain in the UK.

The Albanian migrant made an asylum claim on his arrival in 2018 but disappeared for four years.

When he resurfaced in 2022 he sought permission to remain on the basis of his family life with his wife and children, who had been granted asylum in 2017.

The appeal dragged on for three years and came before two tribunal judges, but it was ultimately rejected last year.

In another instance, Afghan migrant Asif Khan, who entered the UK illegally in 2008, claimed asylum on the grounds his father worked for a US company and his life was at risk if he returned.

But he failed to maintain contact with authorities, which resulted in his claim being withdrawn.

In 2013 he resurfaced and applied for a residence card. This process went back-and-forth for six years but was rejected in 2019.

He made further submissions in 2020, arguing he had a right to family life under Article 8 of the European Court of Human Rights.

Khan, 35, explained he married in an Islamic wedding in 2012 but the relationship broke down, and his wife filed a non-molestation order against him.

He said he then formed a new relationship with another woman and had a son with her in 2019.

At his appeal hearing in 2021, first-tier tribunal Judge Coll found the credibility of his evidence to be “very low” and concluded his removal “would not be disproportionate”.

Khan sought permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal but was rejected a second time in 2022 – 14 years after arriving in the UK.

These hearings alone are thought to have cost the taxpayer tens of thousands of pounds.

Most migrants who arrive by small boat and are housed in hotels and former military bases are not detained or subject to immigration bail, so they do not meet the definition of an absconder if they walk out.

But last year an asylum hotel whistleblower claimed they were disappearing from temporary accommodation on a “daily” basis, with no consequences.

It means the total number of asylum seekers who have disappeared since arriving in Britain is likely even higher than the data suggests.

In 2023, the government’s then-small boat commander Dan O’Mahoney admitted some Albanian migrants were “gaming the system” by using processing delays to disappear and work illegally.

He told Parliament’s Home Affairs Committee: “We typically put them in a hotel for a couple of days, and then they will disappear.

“They work illegally in the UK for maybe six months or a year, they send the money home, and then they go back to Albania.”

The government also admitted in June that some failed asylum seekers have vanished and that it only knows where the “vast majority” of them are.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which oversees government expenditure, said the monitoring system needs a “complete overhaul”.

Last night the Home Office said over 80,000 people in the UK illegally have been removed or returned since Labour came to power in 2024, a 52 per cent increase, with removal of foreign national offenders up by 41 per cent.

The government stressed that Immigration Enforcement can take action against absconders including detention, requirement to wear an electronic tag, reside at a specified address, or report to immigration officials, or deportation.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Individuals who have no legal basis to remain in the UK should be deported and we are committed to making this happen.

“We have a dedicated tracing capability in the Home Office who work with the police and other enforcement agencies to trace those who abscond.