applicant

If the candidate passed that stage they may have been referred to a security check carried out by the US, which involved collecting biometric data from the applicant.

United counter this by saying circumventing the rules just leads to a legitimate applicant missing out.

Figures on the backlog of people waiting for an initial decision on an asylum application include both applicants and dependants.

Those applicants weren’t screened as strictly as usual because they were likely to be existing customers and would be informally vetted by branch staff, according to people familiar with the matter.

They also talked of a "crippling bureaucracy" which required some organisations to employ consultants with form-filling, and according to another independent report, contributed to mental health issues for almost all of the applicants.