The Tory Government has been accused of a "shameful level of incompetence" as alarming new data showed the UK's asylum backlog had reached a record 160,000.
Despite intense pressure to get a grip of the situation, the Home Office decided less than 1% of applications from people who arrived on small boats last year.
The latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures reveal that 160,919 people were waiting for an initial decision on their claim at the end of December - up 60% from a year earlier.
Of these, more than 109,000 had waited for more than six months - up by an astonishing 77%.
As a result of the backlog, thousands of asylum seekers are languishing in hotels waiting for their cases to be resolved.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: "Despite all Rishi Sunak’s grand promises, fewer than 1% of last year’s small boat cases have been decided. These are truly shameful levels of incompetence from a government that has completely lost any grip.
“After 13 years of failure, today's figures underline the shocking mess the Conservatives have made of the asylum system.
"The Home Office is still taking a third fewer decisions each year than it was seven years ago and they have let the backlog rise by another 60% to a record breaking high of 160,000 with the taxpayer fronting the cost through spending on hotels."
Ms Cooper added: "Rishi Sunak needs to stop posturing and start getting the basics right.”
Officials granted refugee status humanitarian protection or alternative forms of leave in 76% of initial decisions.
There were 18,699 initial decisions made on asylum applications last year, up 29% from 14,532 in 2021 but 10% below the 20,766 in the pre-pandemic year of 2019.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman is under intense pressure to deal with the backlog, and last night the Home Office announced plans to fast-track applications from some countries with the highest acceptance rate.
It follows a string of riots outside hotels used by asylum seekers, including in Knowsley earlier this month, where police clashed with far-right demonstrators.
Last night Ms Braverman told GB News that housing asylum seekers in hotels is causing "understandable tensions" following ugly clashes between protesters.
Under new plans unveiled by her department, thousands of applicants will be sent a questionnaire, rather than automatically facing an interview.
About 12,000 people from Afghanistan, Syria, Eritrea, Libya and Yemen, who have applied for asylum in the UK and are waiting for a decision, will be eligible for the Home Office's plan to speed up processing applications.
These applicants have been picked because they come from nations that typically have a high grant rate in the UK of more than 95%.
Asylum seekers subject to the process, which applies to adult applicants and their child dependants but not lone migrants under the age of 18, will not be automatically interviewed.
Instead, they will be sent a 10-page questionnaire with about 40 questions which may not all apply to them, and asked to return it within an initial 20 working days before being offered an extension.
