BRITAIN’S asylum system has been “left to crumble because the Tory government is more concerned with creating a cruel and expensive hostile environment than investing in a workable system,” campaigners charged today.

The damning intervention came after a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) audit identified significant systemic failings which are putting officials and refugees at risk.

Home Office staff are being forced to do “too much, too quickly and with inadequate training,” stressed the agency, which warned it had either seen or been told about “numerous risks to the welfare of asylum-seekers,” including trafficking cases being overlooked and victims of torture being detained.

The labour movement has repeatedly condemned the increasingly right-wing rhetoric emanating from Downing Street and Tory back-benchers amid record numbers of people fleeing war and persecution via small boat crossings in the English Channel.

The government’s proposed Illegal Migration Bill — currently in the House of Lords — aims to criminalise those arriving via “illegal” routes in preparation for their deportation to Rwanda as per a widely condemned deal signed with the East African nation last year.

Ministers have justified the draconian move by pointing to the millions in public cash being spent housing asylum-seekers in hotels each day, but campaigners argue that the unsustainable situation has been created by the government’s own multiple failings in the austerity-hit system. 

“The current registration and screening systems expect staff to do too much, too quickly, and with inadequate training, facilities, guidance and oversight,” the UNHCR said.

“As a result, much of their hard work is wasted, and the system frequently fails to achieve its goals.”

Its report warned of “numerous risks to the welfare of asylum-seekers, including instances of trafficking and vulnerability being overlooked and teenage children and victims of torture and trafficking being detained.

“Registration and screening records were often incomplete, inaccurate, or unreliable and laws and published policies were not complied with.”

It added that “central aspects” of screening interviews were routinely delegated to interpreters, there were no formal quality assurance systems and different practices were followed in different locations.

“For all of these reasons, there is a real risk that decisions based on information collected at screening will be flawed,” leading to “errors, causing distress to individuals, delays and well-founded litigation,” the review found. 

UNHCR representative to Britain Vicky Tennant said: “Fair and efficient asylum systems help ensure that refugees are able to access the protection they need and to start rebuilding their lives.

“[But] flawed and inefficient screening procedures are currently undermining the UK’s asylum capacity, placing vulnerable people at risk and adding to the pressure on public resources.”

A Home Office spokesman claimed the report was “based on an audit that took place in 2021 and early 2022.

“Since then, significant improvements have been made to the processing of small-boats arrivals.”

But Refugee Action chief executive Tim Naor Hilton told the Morning Star that the system is actually on its knees because Downing Street is “more concerned with creating a cruel and expensive hostile environment than investing in a workable system.

“This neglect means more people are having to wait years for an accurate decision on their claim, during which time they’re segregated and forced into poverty, slavery and depression.

“We need an asylum system that is compassionate and is focused on welcome, protection and trauma support and where people have good access to legal help.”

Paul O’Connor of Civil Service union PCS said the UNHCR’s findings “will come as no surprise to our Home Office members. 

“They have struggled for years with chronic under-resourcing that puts them under intolerable pressure and places them in impossible positions,” he told the Star.