Clearing asylum backlog ‘created another crisis’ as refugees left homeless, charities say
Hassan came to the UK on a boat across the English Channel. Now he is sleeping rough on a Liverpool housing estate.
“Where should I go? What should I do?” he asks me, as he clears out his rain-soaked tent, which he’s pitched under some trees near to a row of semi-detached houses.
A sleeping bag he’s had since he left Calais, the last stop until Britain for more than 30,000 migrants this year, is ringing wet.
“This country is no good for asylum,” he says trying to pack his things into plastic bags.
“When you have a problem, you wait a long time for nothing.”
Hassan fled Iraq last year and travelled through Europe to reach Britain.
But his hopes of a new life have long faded.
“I have no money. No anything,” he says.
Nick Martin speaking to Hassan, who has had his asylum application denied
His asylum application was rejected on a technicality, but he is able to reapply. With no phone and no address however, it seems impossible.
A local resident spots us filming and walks quickly towards us, and we witness first hand why immigration is set to become a key issue in the next general election.
“This isn’t happening,” the resident says pointing at the tent angrily.
“We don’t want this around here. You’ve got all the neighbours worried. Imagine this is your house and your kids are playing in the garden, and you’ve got him camping here.
“You better get it moved tonight,” he shouts.
His anger is understandable. Hassan doesn’t want to be here.
But as the government has openly admitted, the asylum system in Britain is broken. This depressing scene on a housing estate brings that into clear focus.
We’ve come to Liverpool because the council here is pleading for the government to step in and help.
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Huge rise in refugees sleeping rough after Home Office cuts notice period
Selma, a refugee who’s come here from Sudan on a family reunion visa and is now homeless
Liverpool City Council says it is dealing with an “unprecedented homelessness problem” and says a big part of that is a sudden influx of asylum seekers.
They blame the government’s move to accelerate the processing of asylum claims to clear the backlog by the end of the year.
When people are given refugee status, they are no longer eligible for asylum seeker accommodation – but there is nowhere to go.
Around £6m a year has been spent housing asylum seekers in hotels and hostels while claims are processed.
And earlier this month, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the government had reduced the backlog from 92,000 to 20,000.
Now cities like Liverpool say that has put them under “enormous pressure” as requests for housing are on the rise at a time when housing stock is already at a premium.
The city council told Sky News that it currently spends around £11m per year on asylum seekers and refugees in the region.
Nationally, there are 1.2 million people waiting for social housing, according to the charity Shelter.
Ewan Roberts, from Asylum Link, an organisation set up to offer help and advice to asylum seekers, says clearing the backlog has had negative knock-on effects.
Asylum Link Merseyside’s centre manager Ewan Roberts
“People are coming through the system so quickly now with leave to remain. They’re recognised as refugees, but there’s no accommodation for them.
“The government has pushed the burden on to somebody else.
“Whether that’s the voluntary sector or local authorities or other statutory homelessness services.
“They might have solved one problem, but they’ve created another.”
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Glasgow City council declares ‘housing emergency’ due to homelessness
Alfadal, 31, who is homeless and sleeps with his wife at a train station
Alfadal, 31, has lived in the UK for four years. His 21-year-old wife Selma has recently been allowed to join him here under a family reunion visa.
But they are homeless because he claims the council say they are not a priority.
“I went to the train station. I sleep there,” he said.
“I don’t have any place to take my wife. I’m afraid for her.”
Government and Labour wrestle with asylum
Immigration is shaping up to be one of the key issues ahead of the general election and the government’s handling of the issue will be seen as critical.
Labour is facing the dilemma of being seen as tough enough by former red wall seats but also compassionate by the other wing of its supporters.
So far, Sir Keir Starmer has committed to lowering migration but has not given any specific target.
It has been a turbulent few weeks for the Conservative Party. The Supreme Court ruling that plans to send migrants to Rwanda were illegal was a major setback.
But in response, the prime minister published emergency legislation that would declare Rwanda a safe country for asylum seekers and push through their controversial deportation policy.
Rishi Sunak has faced a row within the Tories over his Rwanda bill, with some calling for it to override the ECHR
A government spokesperson said: “We have always met our legal obligations by providing support and accommodation for asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute.
“As the legacy backlog reduces, we continue to work with local authorities to manage the impact of asylum decisions and support is available on moving on from asylum support accommodation through Migrant Help and their partners.”
“Through our Rough Sleeping Strategy, we will continue to work not just to reduce rough sleeping but to end it completely. Some £2bn have been provided to councils to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping.”
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A group of refugees and asylum seekers waiting to get housing advice at Asylum Link Merseyside, Liverpool
A Liverpool City Council spokesperson said: “Liverpool, like many local authorities, has been placed under immense pressure by the government’s decision to shift the burden from central to local government without proper planning and consultation.
“As a result we have written to the government to ask for additional help and support as well as co-operation to phase the decisions to enable us to find sustainable solutions.
“We are committed to protecting the most vulnerable in our communities and have increased capacity in our frontline services to address these issues.
“Our current spend on asylum seekers and refugees is in the region of £11m per year.”
An elderly British couple who were detained in a maximum security Taliban prison have arrived in the UK.
Barbie Reynolds, 76, and her husband Peter, 80, landed at Heathrow Airport on Saturday.
The couple were detained by the Taliban’s interior ministry on 1 February as they travelled to their home in Bamyan province, central Afghanistan.
They had been held without charge before being released from detention on Friday and flown to Qatar, where they were reunited with their daughter.
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Freed couple reunites with daughter
Richard Lindsay, the UK’s special envoy to Afghanistan, previously told Sky News it was “unclear” on what grounds the couple had been detained.
The UK government advises British nationals not to travel to Afghanistan.
Abdul Qahar Balkhi, a spokesperson at the Taliban government’s foreign ministry, said in a statement posted on X that the couple “violated Afghan law” and were released from prison after a court hearing.
He did not say what law the couple were alleged to have broken.
Sky correspondent Cordelia Lynch was at Kabul Airport as the freed couple arrived and departed.
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Sky’s Cordy Lynch speaks to released couple
Mr Reynolds told her: “We are just very thankful.”
His wife added: “We’ve been treated very well. We’re looking forward to seeing our children.
“We are looking forward to returning to Afghanistan if we can. We are Afghan citizens.”
The couple have lived in Afghanistan for 18 years and run an organisation called Rebuild, which provides education and training programmes.
They have been together since the 1960s and married in the Afghan capital in 1970.
More than 1,000 people crossed the Channel to the UK in small boats on Friday – the day after the first migrant was deported under the “one in, one out” deal.
The latest Home Office figures show 1,072 people made the journey in 13 boats – averaging more than 82 people per boat.
On the same day, an Iranian man became the third migrant to be deported under the UK’s deal with France.
The number of people who have made the crossing so far in 2025 now stands at 32,103 – a record for this point in a year.
Ministers hope the deal will act as a deterrent, showing migrants they face being sent back to France.
But the scale of Friday’s crossings suggested the policy was so far having little effect on those prepared to make the risky crossing across the Channel.
Read more:
What is the UK-France migrant returns deal?
Where are the UK’s asylum seekers from?
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France deportations will ‘take time’, Peter Kyle said on Friday
The deal with France means the UK can send migrants who enter the UK on small boats back to France.
For each one returned, the UK will allow an asylum seeker to enter through a safe and legal route – as long as they have not previously tried to enter illegally.
The first flights carrying asylum seekers from France to the UK under the reciprocal aspect of the deal are expected to take place next week.
Although they would not comment on numbers, a Home Office source told the PA news agency they were expected to be “at or close to parity”, given the “one in, one out” nature of the deal.
The agreement came into force on 5 August, having been signed by both countries and approved by the European Commission.
Former British athlete Lynsey Sharp has told Sky News she would have won a bronze medal at the Rio Olympics in 2016 had today’s gender testing rules been in place then.
Sharp came sixth in the women’s 800m final behind three now-barred athletes with differences in sexual development (DSD).
She told sports presenter Jacquie Beltrao the sport has changed considerably from when she was competing.
“Sometimes I look back and think I could have had an Olympic medal, but I gave it my all that day and that was the rules at the time,” she said.
“Obviously, I wish I was competing nowadays, but that was my time in the sport and that’s how it was.”
Gold medallist Caster Semenya, with Lynsey Sharp and Melissa Bishop at the women’s 800m final at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Pic: Reuters
The Rio women’s 800m final saw South Africa’s Caster Semenya take gold, with Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba and Margaret Wambui winning silver and bronze respectively. All three would have been unable to compete today.
Semenya won a total of two Olympic gold medals before World Athletics introduced rules limiting her participation in the female class.
Caster Semenya, Francine Niyonsaba and Margaret Nyairera at the women’s 800m final at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Pic: Reuters
The women’s 800m final at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Pic: Reuters
In a major policy overhaul introduced this year, World Athletics now requires athletes competing in the female category at the elite level of the sport to take a gene test.
The tests identify the SRY gene, which is on the Y chromosome and triggers the development of male characteristics.
The tests replace previous rules whereby athletes with DSD were able to compete as long as they artificially reduced their testosterone levels.
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From March: Mandatory sex testing introduced for female athletes
Sharp says while she was competing, governing bodies “didn’t really deal with the issue head on”, and she was often portrayed as a “sore loser” over the issue.
Despite running a Scottish record in that race, her personal best, she described the experience as a “really difficult time”.
“Sadly, it did kind of taint my experience in the sport and at the Olympics in Rio,” she said.
Sharp added that despite the changes, it remains a “very contentious topic, not just in sport, but in society”.
Read more:
World Athletics to introduce mandatory sex testing
Caster Semenya ruling on sex eligibility case
Olympic gold medallist appeals over genetic sex testing
Boxing has now also adopted a compulsory sex test to establish the presence of a Y chromosome at this month’s world championships.
The controversial Olympic champion Imane Khelif, who won Olympic welterweight gold in Paris 2024 in the female category, did not take it and couldn’t compete.
She has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against having to take the test.
Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. Pic: Reuters
Sharp’s comments come as British athletics star and Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson is tipped to win her first world title in Sunday’s women’s 800m final at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
She is returning from a year out after suffering two torn hamstrings.
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