Protests and counter-protests outside asylum hotels have spread across the country after the High Court ruled Epping Forest District Council could stop asylum seekers being housed in a hotel in the town.

But one major cause of the growing numbers in asylum hotels is rarely discussed: backlogs and delays in the appeals system. Promising to speed up the process, Keir Starmer’s government has unveiled a major overhaul, with plans to replace judges in certain asylum appeals with “professional adjudicators”. But what happens in these appeals courts and can they be sped up?

Big Issue senior reporter Greg Barradale went to the drab heart of the asylum tribunals to find out

The judges weren’t happy with the faces on the TV

“We reported we had difficulties with legal aid ,” a lawyer on the

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