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Asylum seekers in the UK could face even longer in limbo as Home Secretary Priti Patel has refused to set a time frame for responding to their applications in a new border crackdown.
The Home Secretary has laid an amendment to her Nationalities and Borders Bill which means the Home Office will not be tied to a six-month limit after which it has to consider a newly arrived migrant’s asylum claim.
Immigration officials have been struggling to remove migrants within the six-month period even when they have come to the UK from a “safe” country like France or Belgium, where they should already have claimed asylum.
2,851 Channel migrants were initially flagged as inadmissible for asylum status because they came from France or Belgium to the UK. But none of them have been removed in the nine months from January to September and only four have been judged inadmissible due to lack of evidence.
A government source said: “The amendment means the six months is not explicitly specified in law which means it gives the Government greater flexibility to change the six months. We are not tying our hands behind our back by putting six months into law.”
The news comes as French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced the country may be willing to set up a new framework with the UK in order to prevent further crossings on last Friday.
According to Le Monde, Mr Castex said in a letter to Boris Johnson that an agreement "could include a mechanism for virtuous transfers between the United Kingdom and the European Union".
The French PM: “We have always accepted to examine and discuss in good faith British proposals of reinforcement and cooperation.
“We have accepted some, we have declined others".
He said in the letter that France would not be willing to carry out joint patrols with the UK, and suggested potential UK asylum reforms.
Mr Johnson had suggested Border Force officers, or failing that private security contractors, could be deployed in joint patrols.