30,000 in UK asylum limbo for six years

MORE than 30,000 asylum seekers have been waiting in Britain for more than six years while their applications are heard, official figures have revealed.

Nearly half – 13,000 – have spent more than a decade in the UK, while taxpayers fund their living expenses to the tune of billions of pounds per year.

Home Office figures from a Freedom of Information request by The Sun on Sunday show 60,290 cases have dragged on for at least three years. Some 12,994 had been in limbo for ten years.

Migrants are processed at centres before being provided accommodation at hotels or bed and breakfasts, costing over £2billion per year – but rising to £3.5billion this year.