New reforms announced for asylum appeals to be made outside the UK

New reforms announced for asylum appeals to be made outside the UK

Reference: 144/2002 - Date: 30 May 2002 11:44

Further powers to tackle unfounded asylum claims and speed up the asylum process are to be included in the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill Home Secretary David Blunkett, announced today.

The Home Office is to table amendments to the Bill which will mean that certain asylum or human rights claimants can be removed following initial decisions. If they want to appeal they will have to do so from outside the UK. This will be similar to the procedures that other European countries such as Sweden and the Netherlands adopt.

The two areas of asylum claims to be targeted are:

* Asylum seekers who make claims for asylum which are clearly unfounded - that is, they make a claim which is wholly lacking in any substance or merit.

* Asylum seekers who can be returned to a safe country from which their appeal can be considered. If the UK can consider the case quickly and refuse it, the person may be returnable to a third country and can exercise any appeal from outside the UK.

The Home Secretary said:

"I said when I published the White Paper in February that I was determined to streamline the appeals process to minimise delay and cut down barriers to removal where asylum claims had failed. I repeated this in the debate on the Second Reading of this Bill. We have already taken steps in the NIA Bill to do so, and the measures I announce today will cut down further on clear abuses of the system.

"At present, an individual can make a wholly unfounded asylum or human rights claim then stay in the UK whilst the appeals process occurs - this is at the taxpayers' expense and can sometimes be for months on end. The Government is no longer prepared to tolerate such abuse of the system. We will return these people to their country of origin as soon as we have rejected their claim. If they choose to appeal, they will have to do so from their home country. This decision would be taken literally within a matter of one or two days of any claim made within this country.

"We will continue to work with our European partners to develop EU-wide policies on asylum. In particular we will work intensively with France about the problems around the Channel Tunnel and Sangatte.

"But in the meantime we are taking the powers we need to operate a fair, robust, and properly administered asylum system. And we will continue to uphold our fundamental moral commitment to provide a safe haven to those fleeing persecution, torture or death."

Under the new arrangements, appeals in cases which the Home Secretary has certified as clearly unfounded or where the claimant can be returned to a safe third country would be exercisable only from outside the United Kingdom.

The Government has already included provisions in the NIA Bill to speed up the appeals process, including a closure date to prevent multiple adjournments of appeals, a streamlined one stop process to ensure that people appeal or have the opportunity to appeal on one occasion only and a statutory review of certain decisions to reduce applications for judicial review.

Notes to editors:

1. The Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill was published on 12 April 2002 (Home Office press notice 093/02). The Bill finished its Commons committee stage on 21 May and is due to progress through report and third reading on 11 and 12 June.

2. The White Paper, 'Secure Border, Safe Haven', was published on 7 February 2002 (Home Office press notice 038/02).

3. Where the claim is clearly unfounded but it is not possible to immediately return the claimant to their country of origin then the Home Secretary has discretion to allow an appeal to take place in this country.

Published: 30 May 2002

Source: www.homeoffice.gov.uk/