Asylum centres ordered to only process Albanian cases to speed up deportations

The Home Office has ordered asylum units to work solely on Albanian claims in a bid to speed up deportations - forcing other nationalities to suffer longer waits. Sources say the push, codenamed Operation Bridora, aims to declare as many applications from Albanians "clearly unfounded" as possible and remove people from the UK after a surge in numbers arriving on small boats.

- LIZZIE DEARDEN

There are concerns that it will delay decisions for thousands of Afghans, Iranians, Syrians and asylum seekers from all other countries, with many already waiting years to find out whether they will be granted protection. "It's discrimination," a source familiar with the drive starting on Monday told The Independent. "[The 'clearly unfounded claims' law] isn't applied to claimants from other countries equally."

Of the more than 140,000 asylum applications awaiting an initial decision in the UK, about 16 per cent (22,900) are from Albanians. More than 16,000 outstanding claims relate to Iranians, 14,5000 to Iraqis, 9,000 to Afghans and around 7,000 to Syrians and Eritreans.

Clare Moseley, the founder of charity Care4Calais, said some of the nationalities being pushed to the back of the queue had asylum grant rates of up to 98 per cent but will now be "waiting even longer before they can restart their lives".

"Asylum claims should be heard fairly based on people's personal circumstances," she added. "This new 'operation' would quite possibly be discriminatory but most certainly be ineffective in tackling the problems in the asylum system our government's policies have created. It will do little to reduce the backlog of asylum claims."