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UK: Torture victims not "safe"

01 May 1996

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A coalition of Liberal Democrats, bishops and others in the House of Lords defeated the government over the notorious "white list" proposals in the Bill, whereby any asylum-seeker from a country declared safe by the minister is deemed bogus unless able to prove otherwise. The peers inserted an amendment excluding those with a credible claim to be torture victims, or from countries with a recent record of torture, from the "white list" procedure. The amendment would have the effect of excluding all Indian, Pakistani and Kenyan asylum-seekers from the white list automatically. The Home Office complained that the amendment would defeat the object of the Bill, thus confirming what observers have said all along: that the intention of the Bill and its companion social security regulations was to abolish the right to asylum altogether. Guardian, 24.4.96

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