Members of the public are set to be hired to judge immigration appeals to speed up the deportation of bogus asylum seekers.
Shabana Mahmood is set to announce plans to recruit hundreds of people to serve as adjudicators in magistrate-style reforms to the appeals process.
The Home Secretary will include the changes in the Immigration and Asylum Bill on Tuesday.
Illegal migrants will get only one chance to appeal against rejected claims under the new Independent Immigration Appeals Authority (IIAA), which will replace the two tiered-immigration tribunal, behind infamous decisions like that of the “chicken nugget migrant”.
The new authority will be used to identify cases which are in the public interest, including “high-harm” foreign offenders and asylum seekers who make human rights claims which are “clearly without merit”.
Ms Mahmood said the reforms would help to clear a record backlog of 87,400 asylum cases.
But the Conservatives, who ran the Home Office for 14 years, have argued the reforms to the immigration system have not gone far enough.
Chris Philp, Shadow Home Secretary, said: “If the Government was serious about deporting illegal immigrants and foreign criminals they would leave the ECHR, leave the modern slavery treaty, ban illegal immigrants from claiming asylum and prevent most judicial reviews. But they are too weak to do this.”
The Home Office says the paid volunteer adjudicators – who replace legally trained judges – will have a “broad range of skills and backgrounds”, but with safeguards in place to guarantee high standards.
The criteria to become an asylum adjudicator will be similar to magistrates, who are professionally trained and independently appointed, but do not need formal legal training.
But unlike magistrates, who serve as unpaid volunteers, adjudicators will be paid a salary in full-time and part-time roles, with a rigorous recruitment process expected to be introduced.
A Home Office source told The Times a chief executive with a “senior background” is expected to lead the IIAA, and a “chief decision-maker” will be brought in from from the legal industry.
Ms Mahmood said: “Today, our appeals tribunal is overwhelmed. As a result, people are gaming the system, lodging vexatious appeals to frustrate their removal. Our new appeals body will ensure claims are heard swiftly and fairly.
“Those with a legitimate claim will get their hearing. Those who have no right to remain in this country, and are abusing the system, will be swiftly removed.”
Labour’s changes to the immigration and deportation process are also set to tackle the record of almost 20,000 foreign offenders who are still at large on Britain’s streets.
Home Office figures revealed 19,779 criminals are living freely in the UK who have already been identified for deportation but have lodged human rights complaints to avoid their removal.
Many offenders have claimed their deportation would breach their rights to a family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which will have its interpretation limited to immediate family only.
Ms Mahmood has announced plans to expand detention capacity by 40 per cent as the Government aims to deport an extra 45,000 foreign criminals and failed asylum seekers over the next decade.
Andy Burnham gave his support to Labour’s immigration reforms during a meeting with Ms Mahmood earlier this week.
Earlier this month the Makerfield MP said he wanted “greater use of detention” in order to have a “speedier” deportation of illegal migrants who have “no basis for a claim”.
The Home Secretary said: “Returns and deportations are at their highest level in nearly a decade. Nearly 70,000 individuals who have no right to be here have been removed from the UK since this Government took office.
“But we will not stop there. These expansions will see thousands more foreign criminals and illegal migrants who have no right to be here removed.”
Mr Philp, however, said “tweaking” the interpretation of Article 8 and “increasing detention capacity alone” would not increase the number of deportations.
