Preliminary statement by Asylum Aid on changes to the asylum system announced by the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, 29th October 2001

Asylum Aid considers that the system of vouchers and dispersal introduced by the 1999 Immigration and Asylum Act has been an unmitigated disaster, and welcomes any moves to revise it. Without accepting that asylum seekers as a whole are motivated by economic considerations, Asylum Aid also agrees that placing an asylum system within the context of a sensible and constructive immigration policy, as the government has been proposing to do in recent months, is a positive development.

However, Asylum Aid remains unconvinced that the system of reception centres being put forward by the Home Secretary will be a significant improvement on the existing situation. Without clear details of how these are to operate or what facilities will be available, it is not possible to make a definitive judgement. However, Asylum Aid believes that dispersal failed in part because it was seen by asylum-seekers, and intended by the government, as a punitive or deterrent measure, and considers that reception centres risk failing for the same reasons. There is no reason why positive benefits which might exist at reception centres, such as access to legal advice, cannot be available to asylum seekers living in the community. Nor is there any need to confine asylum seekers in detention or reception centres in order to determine their claims for asylum both fairly and speedily.

Asylum Aid is concerned that reception centres will at best increase the social exclusion of asylum seekers, hindering the recuperation of victims of torture and human rights abuses and preventing the constructive involvement of all refugees in the community, and at worst will represent a massive and unjustified assault on people’s liberty.

Alasdair Mackenzie, Co-ordinator of Asylum Aid, said,

“The worst thing the government can do now is rush into new legislation without time for reflection and consultation.

“Asylum seekers have suffered a decade of constant changes to the way in which their claims are assessed and the way in which they are supported and accommodated. Most of the 1999 Act has been in force for little over twelve months – some of it has never been implemented even though it was passed by Parliament two years ago. Now yet another set of changes is being put forward; this demonstrates the lack of coherent planning and the lamentable failure of successive governments to engage with the real issues concerning forced migration.

“Mr Blunkett now has the opportunity to break this depressing cycle if he is prepared to embark on genuine and open consultation on reform of the asylum system.

The reason each new Act has had to be replaced within a short time is that each has been poorly planned and carelessly drafted, and has been based on the false notion that the way to deal with people fleeing human rights abuses is to exclude them, deter them from coming, or humiliate them.

“There is not, and never has been, any evidence that treating asylum applicants harshly has any significant effect on the numbers of people coming to the UK. On the contrary, the current situation on the borders of Afghanistan surely demonstrates that movements of refugees have far more to do with conditions in the countries from which asylum seekers are fleeing, in particular the incidence of violence and human rights abuses.

“The fact is that some 50% of asylum applicants are successful in gaining permission to stay in the UK[1], even under the harsh and incompetent determination system operating here; many more would be successful if they had access to a fair determination system and independent legal system.

“The system by which asylum claims are assessed in the UK is in desperate need of reform, and we urge the government to make this a priority. Far too many asylum seekers are unfairly rejected, or have to fight for years to get their cases taken seriously. Without a fair determination system, any other changes are futile and doomed to failure.

“International efforts also need to be focussed on preventing people from having to flee for their lives in the first place – such as the programme of regeneration which the Foreign Secretary has recently proposed for the future in Afghanistan – rather than on a constant stream of ever-harsher methods aimed at the victims of the international community’s failures.

“Asylum Aid fervently hopes that the government will have not only the courage to engage constructively with critics of its policies, but also the vision to implement a system which will treat refugees positively and humanely.”

Media enquiries to Alasdair Mackenzie, Co-ordinator of Asylum Aid, on 020 7377 5123 or info@asylumaid.org.uk.

www.asylumaid.org.uk
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[1] Taking into account those who are successful in appeals and other challenges against initial refusals, and excluding those whose claims are refused for purely technical reasons, without their reasons for claiming being looked at; in spite of the Home Secretary’s recent commitment to accurate and comprehensive statistics, Home Office figures on success rates in asylum claims remain deeply misleading, understating the correct figures by around half.