UK: White paper on immigration and asylum
01 September 1998
Fairer, firmer, faster ? with these three now familiar catchwords the government's long-awaited review of immigration and asylum law was published in July 1998. The white paper, on which comments are invited by the end of October, proposes changes in asylum procedures, reception and detention, increased powers of immigration officers and internal controls, and a streamlined system including reduced appeal rights. The main proposals are:
Asylum
An increased number of airline liaison officers will work in countries of origin stopping undocumented passengers from boarding planes. Many will be refugees who will thereby be prevented from reaching safety.
No more welfare benefits for asylum-seekers. They will be expected to turn to relatives or their communities. Destitute and isolated asylum-seekers will be helped with housing and subsistence on a cashless, no-choice basis, probably involving housing association or other public-sector accommodation outside London and vouchers for basic needs. This will be withdrawn when their claim and appeal has been rejected.
The asylum determination procedure will be streamlined. There will be an interview (at which there will be no right to legal assistance), following which the asylum-seeker will have five days to submit supporting evidence. The "white list" of safe countries of origin will be abolished but the fast-track procedure for claims deemed "manifestly unfounded" (used, for example, when the asylum-seeker presents a false passport or has no travel documents at all) will be retained.
The backlog of undecided asylum claims will be removed by granting leave to remain to all those waiting for a decision since July 1993 or earlier (with exceptions for bad behaviour), and discretionary grants of leave to some waiting since 1995.
Detention will be the norm once an asylum appeal is dismissed. There will be more detention places. Written reasons will be given for detention and there will be more bail hearings
A central database of fingerprints of asylum-seekers and illegal immigrants, greater use of readmission agreements and voluntary return programmes will ensure more removals of rejected asylum-seekers.
Immigration
A financial bond scheme for visitors to guarantee their departure will be piloted. Family visitors will have a right of appeal against refusal of a visa, but they will have to pay for it. Deportation will be replaced by administrative removal, with no suspensive right of appeal. Avenues of appeal will be reduced for all categories of immigrants and asylum-seekers so that there is just one appeal before removal from the country.
Internal controls
Immigration officers will have more powers of arrest, entry, search and seizure, currently carried out by police. Marriage registrars will have more powers to detect and report "bogus marriages" Criminal sanctions for deception of immigration officers will be strengthened Employer sanctions contained in the 1996 Asylum and Immigration Act will be used to crack down on illegal working.
Implications
The proposals are bound to reduce the percentage of successful asylum claims and result in genuine refugees being unable to prove their claim and being speedily returned to danger or death. The government has ignored the argument that fair and thorough assessment of asylum claims will reduce the number of appeals. Lack of representation at asylum interview means asylum-seekers will simply not put forward the whole story, because there is no-one to advise them what is relevant. The five-day deadline for submission of evidence is a sick joke, with waiting lists of two months to see doctors at the Medical Foundation (needed to obtain corroborative medical evidence of torture).
The pay-as-you-enter and pay-as-you-appeal systems combine with the asylum workhouse system to produce a polarised system where rights depend on riches. Poor, rightless asylum-seekers will be shunted