UK immigration authorities have taken over 20 years to decide on granting asylum to certain refugees. During that whole period, they could not work and lived in penury.

Nowadays they would also be required to pay for their medical treatment, which they could not possibly do. This could kill them.

Clearly, people waiting for a decision should not be left in penury in the meanwhile. However, why not simply grant asylum by default to anyone whose case takes several years to decide? The number of such cases must be small.