UK Asylum Aspirants May Be Granted Refugee Status
According to the BBC on Thursday, about 12,000 asylum seekers to the UK would be evaluated for refugee status without requiring in-person interviews.
Before July, applicants from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Libya, Syria, and Yemen were had to complete a 10-page questionnaire, which the Home Office will use to assess their applications.
The Home Office may consider the asylum application withdrawn if the 40 questions are not answered in English and returned within 20 working days. If necessary, the form advises using “internet translation tools.”
Officials from the UK government informed the BBC that the standard criminal and security checks will continue to be in place.
The new plan intends to shorten the asylum backlog, which Prime Minister Rishi Sunak committed to eliminate by 2023.
According to the Home Office, the change would streamline the procedure for five nationalities whose asylum petitions have already had 95% of them granted, rather than serving as an amnesty.
The 20-day restriction, according to the British Red Cross, might, however, have “devastating” effects on those seeking shelter.
“These men, women, and children may not understand English and are undoubtedly traumatized by fleeing persecution and war,” Christina Marriott, executive director of strategy and communications at the British Red Cross, said in a statement to The Guardian.
“They need our support and compassion, not rushed and complicated bureaucracy that will only increase suffering.
“We know from experience that government communications with people seeking asylum often falls short – translations are rarely provided, and forms are lost in transit. This time limit could have devastating impacts on people who need protection,” she added.
The Guardian was informed by Sile Reynolds, the organization’s director of asylum advocacy that: “Plans for an asylum claim questionnaire – requiring people to complete a complex form, often without any legal advice, in a language they don’t understand and to a 20-day deadline – could see many asylum claims wrongly withdrawn, leaving those individuals at risk of return to torture or persecution.”
In addition, Marriott expressed “deep concern ” about the notion that applications be canceled if refugees failed to provide the required paperwork by the deadline.
But, Home Office representatives informed the BBC that each application would be evaluated on its own merits if no response was received after a follow-up notification was given.
There are currently almost 166,000 asylum seekers in the UK waiting for a judgment on their application, which is a new high.
The UK experienced its highest level of asylum requests in nearly 20 years in 2022, when there were approximately 75,000 of them. The greatest percentage in thirty years, more than 75% of rulings were in favor of providing asylum.
The recent rise in applications was only one element leading to the current backlog, according to a recent Migration Observatory research, which also claimed that the backlog had accumulated over several years due to delayed decision-making.
According to The Guardian, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees welcomed the new program and pledged to cooperate with the Home Office to ensure its smooth implementation.
