By Mark Davies BBC News Online political reporter

David Blunkett: Confident measures will work

So said Jack Straw back in July 1998 as, in his then position as home secretary, he signalled the first major shake-up of asylum laws under the Labour government.

The problem for ministers is that some of their opponents would say that for all the changes - two acts of parliament and more than little tinkering too - the system is still suffering from "piecemeal and ill considered" changes.

Mr Blunkett is confident the raft of measures in the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act last November will dramatically improve the situation

Indeed, Mr Straw's statement in 1998 signalled plans for vouchers for asylum seekers to replace benefits for food and other essential items. A few years later, the system was scrapped by David Blunkett.

Mr Straw's White Paper - called Fairer, Faster, Firmer - was Labour's first response to problems in an asylum system which have continued to hamper the government ever since.

And it's not as if ministers have got to grips with the problems even now.

Mr Blunkett is confident the raft of measures which went through Parliament in the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act last November will dramatically improve the situation, but the prime minister has signalled that if they don't, further shake-ups will lie ahead.

Dispersal

Earlier this month he even went so far as to say the government may re-examine the UK's commitment to the European Convention on Human Rights if current policies fail to stop illegal immigrants entering the country.

Asylum seeker figures Total applications: 85,865 Total including dependents: 110,700 Rise over 2001: 20% 53% allowed to remain Applications across EU (excluding Italy) fell by 1% By far the biggest group came from Iraq More on the 2002 figures

Labour's battle with the asylum system began with Mr Straw's Asylum and Immigration Bill, introduced in the Queens speech of 1998.

That led to the introduction of vouchers, reform of the appeal system and the dispersal of asylum seekers around the UK in an attempt to relieve pressure on inner London, Kent and Sussex.

But there was immediate trouble for the government as backbench Labour MPs threatened a rebellion over the voucher scheme, prompting Mr Straw to increase the amount of cash made available to asylum seekers.

The dispersal scheme was criticised by local authorities and the system was later put under review - and then scrapped - following the murder of a Turkish refugee in Glasgow, a knife attack on an asylum seeker in Hull and protests over detention conditions in Cardiff.

Shake-up

And soon ministers were looking at ways of increasing the number of detention centres to house asylum seekers instead.

But by April 2001, Mr Straw felt able to declare that he felt the UK was "getting on top of the problem".

He said then that the backlog of cases waiting to be handled had fallen dramatically - but a few months later David Blunkett, having taken over at the home office, had to admit that the number of asylum seekers waiting for decisions had been hugely underestimated.

The new home secretary wasted little time in drawing up a second major shake-up of the asylum system, introducing new proposals in 2001.

Out went the voucher system in what Mr Blunkett called a "fundamental and radical reform".

He said the system set up by his predecessor was too slow, vulnerable to fraud and unfair both on local people and on asylum seekers.

'White list'

The package included plans to offer up to 3,000 people places in accommodation centres.

Throughout Labour's period in office, meanwhile, the press has been snapping at the government's heels over asylum

The plans also saw moves to deny immigrants making asylum claims support unless they could explain how they entered the country and unless they made their claim at a port or airport.

A so-called "white list" of safe countries from which asylum claims would be rejected - extended earlier this year - was also introduced. Such a measure had previously been opposed by the government.

But the package only made it through Parliament after a series of concessions by the government.

Plans to build a large asylum centre in rural Worcestershire were scrapped while the government agreed to create an independent monitor to assess the location of future centres as a concession to concerns about plans for centres in rural areas.

There was also a rebellion by 42 Labour MPs over plans to teach asylum seeker children in accommodation centres rather than in local schools.

Anger

Throughout Labour's period in office, meanwhile, the press has been snapping at the government's heels over asylum, while a stream of court judgements have gone against first Jack Straw and then David Blunkett.

At times the debate has gone right to the heart of British life, with talk of "Britishness" tests and concern over the rise of far-right groups fuelled by anger over asylum.

Mr Blunkett, like Jack Straw before him, has been criticised for many of the measures introduced - and also for his language: talk of asylum seekers' children "swamping" schools caused a big political row.

The question of how to approach the asylum issue has caused much soul-searching for the Tories, while it has also played a part in the "war against terror" amid concern that terror networks may have arrived in the UK as asylum seekers.

But what has really categorised the debate has been the government's search for a system which both works and which is acceptable politically.

Thorn

Indeed, since Mr Blunkett's Nationality, Immigration and Asylum act was passed, there have been further changes to the asylum system, with the "exceptional leave to remain" system scrapped, for instance.

A new proposal for the system, in a discussion paper which suggests deporting most asylum seekers to United Nations "regional protection areas", emerged this month.

Meanwhile, the controversial Sangatte refugee camp in France - a regular thorn in the side for the government - has been closed.

Mr Blunkett has been frank in admitting that while he is hopeful in the long-term, the latest figures are not good news.

Such honesty is perhaps a better approach than some of the bold pledges of the past. In September last year, for instance, Mr Blunkett admitted that the government's manifesto commitment to remove 30,000 failed asylum seekers a year was "massively over-ambitious".

The lesson from that episode could come back to haunt Tony Blair, of course, after his statement this month that he believes asylum applications can be halved by September this year.