ASYLUM seekers in Huddersfield are living in limbo as they wait years for their applications to be decided.

A Government inspector yesterday ordered the Border Agency to double its productivity to clear a backlog of 200,000 claims.

Alan Brooke, of Kirklees Refugees and Friends Together, helps Huddersfield asylum seekers.

He said: “We have some atrocious examples locally of people having to wait up to four years for their claim to be processed. We have people from Iraq, Albania and Ethiopia who have been waiting for years.

“They are in a state of limbo because they have no right to stay. They can’t get a passport and it’s very hard for them to get a job.”

Mr Brooke, who is based at St Thomas’ Community Centre on Manchester Road, criticised the Border Agency for not processing the claims quicker.

He said: “There’s no complexity to this process, it’s a fairly basic form.”

Border Agency chief executive John Vine yesterday ordered the organisation to up its processing rate from 5,000 cases a month to 11,000.

The agency aims to clear its backlog of 200,000 applications by July 2011.