Asylum appeals tribunal calls for extra staff

The body tasked with handling asylum appeals from refugees says it requires a substantial increase in staff levels to process a backlog of applications.

The International Protection Appeals Tribunal (IPAT) received 2,174 appeals last year compared to 1,386 in 2015 — a 57% increase that saw the tribunal left with 554 more appeals on hand than at the start of 2016.

Pakistani nationals represented the highest proportion of applications received by the tribunal last year, followed by nationals of Nigeria, Albania, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.