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Suella Braverman has said the government could fail to meet the prime minister's target of clearing the backlog of asylum claims at the current rate of processing.

Rishi Sunak promised in December to abolish the backlog of around 92,000 asylum claims by the end of 2023.

The home secretary told MPs the target would not be met at the current pace.

But she said she wasn't "pessimistic" about the target because more staff would be hired later this year.

Mr Sunak, who has listed "stopping the boats" as one of his priorities in office, announced last year that the "legacy" backlog of asylum cases dating before 28 June 2022 would be abolished by the end of the year.

Parliament is currently debating the government's second major piece of immigration legislation since small boat crossings began in 2018.

If the Illegal Migration Bill becomes law it will block asylum claims from migrants arriving in small boats, although it is likely to face a challenge under human rights law.

Asylum claims - a legal request for sanctuary, or refugee status, in another country - can be made by anyone who comes to the UK under an international convention agreed in 1951.

The "legacy" asylum backlog total stands at stands at 78,954 cases relating to 104,049 people, according to .

This means that officials need to make 8,773 decisions every month to fulfil Mr Sunak's pledge.

The Home Office is making around 3,600 asylum decisions a month at present, based on the total of 10,750 decisions in the first quarter of 2023.

Ms Braverman told MPs on the Commons Home Affairs Committee: "If you maintained the current pace we wouldn't meet the target. However that's to overlook we will have our full cohort of decision makers later this year. They will be trained up and fully proficient."

At the start of May, there were 1,280 Home Office staff working on asylum decision making, a big increase on a year previously, although a slight fall from the number employed at the start of 2023.

The committee also heard from a senior Home Office official, Dan Hobbs, who confirmed that the proportion of asylum decision makers who leave their jobs each year stood at 28%.

The government has also introduced a streamlined process for asylum claims from nationals of five countries with the highest asylum acceptance rates.

Questioned by MPs, Ms Braverman also conceded conceded that women trafficked into the UK for sexual exploitation could be deported under new measures to tackle illegal migration.

The home secretary said women could receive protection if there was "compelling evidence for their reasonable grounds" or if "they are part of a police investigation".

She was also asked by the SNP's Alison Thewliss about the disappearance of 154 asylum seeker children from temporary hotel accommodation.

Ms Braverman said missing persons cases were a matter for the police, but confirmed there were no longer any unaccompanied child asylum seekers in hotels.