Over 18,000 who faced Rwanda removal are now having cases dealt with in UK

Freedom of information data obtained by the Guardian reveals that between January 2021 and June 2023 about three-quarters (18,078) of those who previously received notice of intent letters indicating their claims would not be processed in the UK “have been subsequently admitted into the asylum system”.

A notice of intent letter is issued after the Home Office has declared an asylum claim inadmissible and removal from the UK is being considered.

The latest disclosures come as Rishi Sunak hopes his safety of Rwanda bill will clear the final hurdles of its difficult passage through parliament this week.

Since then, successive pieces of legislation have introduced increasingly strict rules clamping down on those who arrive via irregular means – such as dinghies crossing the Channel – as part of the government’s vow to “stop the boats”.

At a session of parliament’s cross-party public accounts committee on Monday, the Conservative MP Tim Loughton asked senior Home Office officials what was going to happen to the roughly 40,000 asylum seekers who had arrived in the UK since July 2023 but were not having their claims processed here – with the prospect of them all being sent to Rwanda viewed as unlikely.

Steve Smith, the chief executive of the charity Care4Calais, said: “Every single one of these 18,078 asylum claims were unnecessarily put on hold by these notices of intent, which have only had the effect of keeping people’s lives in limbo.