Asylum bill doubles to nearly £4bn as Sunak says cost is ‘unacceptable’
The taxpayer bill on asylum almost doubled in a year to nearly £4bn as Rishi Sunak said the cost was “unacceptable” and warned the system is under “unsustainable pressure”.
Home Office spending on asylum rose by £1.85bn, from £2.12bn in 2021/22 to £3.97bn this year.
A decade ago, in 2012/13, the total cost to the taxpayer was £500.2m.
Channel crossings topped 19,000 for the year so far, Home Office figures showed, despite Mr Sunak’s promise to voters that he would “stop the boats” bringing migrants across the English Channel.
About 80% of asylum seekers are waiting longer than six months for an initial decision, government statistics show.
Mr Sunak has also pledged by the end of 2023 to clear the backlog of around 92,601 so-called “legacy” cases which had been in the system as of the end of June last year.
But in the six months since Mr Sunak made his promise, the figure reduced by just less than a quarter.
He told the Daily Express: “The best way to relieve the unsustainable pressures on our asylum system and unacceptable costs to the taxpayer is to stop the boats in the first place.
“That’s why we are focused on our plan to break the business model of the people smugglers facilitating these journeys, including working with international partners upstream to disrupt their efforts, stepping up joint work with the French to help reduce crossings and tackling the asylum backlog.”
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‘Government broke asylum system’
Overall, a total of 175,457 people were waiting for an initial decision on an asylum application in the UK at the end of June 2023, up 44% from 122,213 for the same period a year earlier – the highest figure since current records began in 2010.
Of these, 139,961 had been waiting longer than six months for an initial decision, up 57% year on year from 89,231 and another record high.
Labour said the record-high asylum backlog amounts to a “disastrous record” for Mr Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman, while campaigners called for claims to be processed more efficiently.
A group of people thought to be migrants are brought into Dover from a Border Force vessel
But the prime minister defended the government’s progress, saying: “We’ve already reduced the legacy backlog by over 28,000 – nearly a third – since the start of December and we remain on track to meet our target.
“But we know there is more to do to make sure asylum seekers do not spend months or years – living in the UK at vast expense to the taxpayer – waiting for a decision.”
Amnesty International UK said it was “utterly disgraceful that new asylum laws are being introduced to actually prevent the processing of claims altogether, which will make this backlog, its cost and the limbo it imposes on people even worse”.
New Hampshire has approved the issuance of a $100 million municipal bond backed by Bitcoin, in what appears to be the first structure of its kind at the US state level.
Minutes from a Nov. 17 meeting of the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority (BFA), the state’s business financing agency, show the board planned “to consider approving a resolution authorizing up to $100,000,000 bonds for a project to acquire and hold digital currency.”
Minutes from the following day record that directors voted to “approve the preliminary official intent, with no reservation, to issue a taxable conduit revenue bond for WaveRose Depositor, LLC of up to $100,000,000.”
According to a Wednesday Crypto in America report, the bond is backed by Bitcoin (BTC) and would let companies borrow against overcollateralized BTC held by a private custodian. The state or taxpayers do not back the bond; instead, BFA approves and oversees a private deal, while Bitcoin — reportedly held in custody by BitGo — covers investors.
According to the report, asset manager Wave Digital Assets and bond specialist Rosemawr Management designed the bond to utilize Bitcoin as collateral under the same rules that govern municipal and corporate bonds. Wave co-founder Les Borsai said the goal is to “bridge traditional fixed income with digital assets” for institutional investors.
Related: New Hampshire, North Dakota introduce bills for Strategic Bitcoin Reserve
“We believe this structure shows how public and private sectors can collaborate to responsibly unlock the value of digital assets and digital asset reserves,” he added.
The borrower is expected to post approximately 160% of the bond’s value in Bitcoin as collateral, and if the price of BTC drops below roughly 130%, a liquidation would ensure that bondholders stay whole. According to BFA Executive Director James Key-Wallace, fees from the transaction will fund the local innovation and entrepreneurship program, the Bitcoin Economic Development Fund.
New Hampshire dives headfirst into crypto
The news follows New Hampshire becoming the first US state to allow its government to invest in cryptocurrencies in May after Governor Kelly Ayotte signed a bill allowing the municipality to “invest in cryptocurrency and precious metals.”
Related: US won’t start Bitcoin reserve until other countries do: Mike Alfred
New Hampshire is also working on a bill to deregulate local cryptocurrency mining operations. In late October, a committee voted 4–2 to send the measure for further review in an interim study after it had been deadlocked in the State Senate twice.
The local administration is viewed as particularly welcoming to the cryptocurrency industry. In early February, Brendan Cochrane, an Anti-Money Laundering specialist at YK Law in New York City, argued that it could become an alternative for crypto companies relocating to the Bahamas.
The latest moves build on a longer history of crypto engagement. Back in 2015, New Hampshire was already working on a bill that would have allowed the state government to accept tax and fee payments in Bitcoin.
The bill ultimately failed in 2016, but it shows how early the local administration began to show interest in this asset class. Additionally, as early as 2016, some advocates were already arguing that New Hampshire was among the world’s most Bitcoin-friendly communities.
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Ondo Global Markets, a US-based tokenization platform, has received regulatory approval to offer tokenized stocks to European investors.
Liechtenstein Financial Market Authority (FMA) has granted Ondo approval to launch its tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the European Union and the broader European Economic Area (EEA), the company announced on Tuesday.
“With this milestone, more than 500 million investors in 30 European countries can soon access regulated exposure to US markets directly onchain,” Ondo said.
The news came a few weeks after Ondo partnered with Boerse Stuttgart Group’s digital asset arm BX Digital to enable the tokenized stock trading in Switzerland on Nov. 3.
Liechtenstein adopts MiCA despite not being EU member state
Liechtenstein’s approval positions Ondo to offer tokenized stocks and ETFs to retail investors across all 30 EEA countries, including all 27 EU nations plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
The regulatory milestone positions Ondo to operate within a “unified, regulated European framework consistent with established investor-protection standards,” the company said.
Ondo did not specify the framework under which it secured approval to offer tokenized stocks in Europe, but highlighted Liechtenstein’s passporting regime, which extends across the EEA.
As an EEA member state, Liechtenstein implemented the EU-wide Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework through the EEA MiCA Implementation Act, EWR-MiCA-DG, which entered into force in February.
Following the expiry of the transitional regime on Dec. 31, 2025, crypto asset service providers (CASPs) must hold MiCA authorization from Liechtenstein’s FMA.
Related: Ondo tokenizes over 100 US stocks and ETFs on BNB Chain
Cointelegraph approached Ondo and the FMA for comment regarding the nature of the approval but had not received a response at the time of publication.
The news arrives amid rising tensions within the EU over the extent of supervisory authority that member states should retain under MiCA. According to reports, EU officials are drafting plans to designate the European Securities and Markets Authority as the direct regulator for all CASPs across the bloc.
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