UK asylum system is on 'the brink', cross-party MPs' report warns

Britain's asylum system is "failing to cope in the face of severe pressure", an influential committee of cross-party MPs has warned.

In a report published on Friday, the public accounts committee said its findings were "disturbing" and government was "at considerable risk of repeating past failures" as it tried to tackle the problems.

Committee chair Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, a Conservative, said control of the asylum system "had been all but lost", and there was a focus on "short-term fixes".

The Home Office said the system was being reformed, as hotel use for asylum seekers was falling, asylum claims had declined, and the number of decisions made about cases had risen.

The cross-party MPs' report said it was "shocking and unacceptable" that the Home Office could not keep track of all those whose claims had failed, therefore not knowing with certainty who remained in the UK. The Home Office told the committee it only knows where the "vast majority" of failed asylum seekers are.

One of the recommendations called for a complete overhaul of the system of monitoring failed asylum seekers.

The report called on the government to explain how it will trace those with whom it is not in active contact as well as how it will tackle illegal working by failed asylum seekers and sanction employers.

Sir Geoffrey blamed a "directionless bureaucracy" for leaving asylum seekers either "in limbo, or lost".