It was “supremely easy” for Sudanese migrants to gain asylum in the UK at the time the suspected Belfast attacker arrived, according to a whistleblower. Hadi Alodid, as a Sudanese national, was reportedly able to stay in Britain in 2023 after filling in a questionnaire rather than facing the standard interview.

A Home Office asylum case officer said there was pressure to speed through claims by people from Sudan amid a civil war in the country. Sudan was one of six nations under a fast-track scheme as part of Rishi Sunak‘s pledge to clear the backlog. But the whistleblower claimed it meant that security checks were bypassed and that staff were set productivity goals.

He told The Times that 2023 was “a supremely easy time to get granted as a Sudanese” amid a civil war in the nation, adding that staff “were falling over themselves to grant”.

He said: “It wasn’t about good decisions, it was about making decisions and there was nothing like hitting targets.”

He said that Alodid would have been “a double whammy” because he would have sent an individual caseworker’s “productivity through the roof”.

But he said it created a “big problem”, adding: “Everyone then wanted a Sudan claim to hit their target and then suddenly Sudan claims get a reputation for being easy. So people start looking for any reason to grant … It snowballs, the more that get granted the more likely they are to be granted. No one wanted to miss the gold rush.”

Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn said this morning that the fast-track asylum scheme is no longer in operation.

He told Times Radio: “That was a process that was put in place by the last government.”

Asked whether it still exists now, he said: “Well it does not, because that fast-track process doesn’t operate, because the last government lost control of immigration.

“As you know, net migration is down 82% now, compared to the peak reached under the last government as a result of a number of steps that we have taken.”

“And because we now have dealt with the asylum backlog, we’re processing the cases quicker.”

Mr Benn added that asylum seekers are now “properly processed” in order for a decision to be made on whether they should be granted asylum.