UK: No longer at ease with asylum-seekers

They are ruled by fear. They sleep and wake up with frustrations. Their daily life is enmeshed in uncertainty. These are men, women and children who are in search of a place to put their heads in the United Kingdom and they are known as asylum-seekers.
Though driven by various factors they are bonded by one goal-the issuance of a piece of paper by the British Home Office that would enable them to live, work and settle down in the country.
But, like a ship that is being tossed by tidal waves, most of them are still drifting, not knowing what fate has in stock for them. Some of them may be in detention the next moment; others may be deported while a few may be lucky to get refugee status and stay. But in all, their fate hangs in the balance while their papers are being processed by immigration officials.
While many anxious persons are fleeing their countries to seek refuge in the UK, the country is actively employing measures aimed at reducing the number.
In a letter to the Home Affairs Committee, the Head of the Border and Immigration Agency, Lin Homer, confessed that asylum applications had dropped to the lowest level in the UK and was proud about the discovery.
Homer said, “Between January and September 2007, there were 16,520 principal asylum applications lodged, which represents a seven percent fall in applications compared to the same period in 2006. It is also the lowest number of applications since 1992.”
The Home Office Secretary, Jacqui Smith, in another report also boasted: “Unfounded asylum applications are down from 70,200 in 2003/4 to 17,200 in 2006/7. In 2006, only 17 out of 100 who applied for asylum were recognised as refugees and granted asylum.”
However, while the country’s immigration agencies are happy with the downward trend, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees is unhappy with the decline in the number of refugees being admitted by the UK.
In a letter written by the UNHCR Representative to the MPs, the commission complained that the country was dropping in its rating of asylum-taking nations.
The letter, signed by Anne Dawson-Shepherd, pointed out that asylum applications to the UK had plummeted by 61 percent, far behind France.
The UNHCR further said that the UK hosted about 2 percent of the world’s asylum population, which was less than the 2 million that Pakistan and Iran hold.
But in an apparent response, Labour Immigration Minister, Liam Byrne, said in a major policy statement that the administration was set implement a new set of rules that would make the asylum and immigration system symbiotically beneficial to the country and asylum seekers and eliminate those who have no legal basis to come to the UK.
“Our asylum system must command public confidence, protect the security of the UK, prevent abuse of our laws, and be fair to both the British public and those genuinely in need of asylum”, Byrne stated.
The National Audit Office estimates that there are between 155,000 and 283,500 refused asylum seekers in the UK, including children, being detained in different locations in the country.
Medical Foundation, a London-based non-governmental body that renders medical services to asylum seekers, complained about the ordeal of applicants in the hands of immigrations officials.
“Our main worry is that people are being tortured in the course of seeking asylum in the UK. Immigrations officials are too suspicious of asylum seekers to the point that they do not believe even people with genuine cases, thereby defeating the purpose of asylum. They need to be properly trained to understand the whole process to reduce what the applicants go through and make the system work”, Aliya Mughall, the Media Officer for Medical Foundation said.
Under the Immigration Act of 1999, those who fail to get asylum, must leave the country or be removed by the Home Office. However, those who are refused asylum have the right to appeal and may remain on government support until the appeal is determined by the Asylum Immigration Tribunal, AIT.

The Border and Immigrations Agency, an organ of the Home Office, has been deporting and detaining asylum seekers in consonance with the dictates of the law. In the last quarter of 2007, a total of 3120 failed asylum applicants including their dependants were deported.
Amnesty International deplores the detention of asylum seekers. “We are concerned that asylum seekers are being detained at various stages in the UK. Detention should be the last resort in a fair and just situation. Besides, it takes quite a long time to process an asylum’s application, leaving them to remain in agony and suspense”, says David Edwards, an AI Researcher on EU based in London.
A Home Office report confirms that 2325 persons were being detained in the UK under the Immigration Act of 1999. The breakdown shows that 175 Europeans were in detention, followed by 265 Americans and 965 Africans. Detainees from the Middle East were 235, Asian were 680 while five were from unknown locations. Of the number of detainees, 120 were European asylum seekers, 125, Americans, 655 Africans, 195 from the Middle East, 530 from Asia.
A further breakdown reveals that of the 1625 asylum seekers being detained, 270 are women, 1975 are men while 55 are children.
Rights groups are however worried about the detention of child asylum seekers by the UK immigration agencies. “It is absolutely wrong to detain children who are seeking asylum. It is our hope that this country will begin to treat children well and stop infringing on their rights,” says Hannah Ward, Media Officer for Refugee Council, a London group that campaigns for migrants’ rights.
But a spokesman for the Home Office, Gayle Douglas, denies the allegations of torture of asylum seekers. He said however that only persons who commit criminal activities are arrested, detained or deported. “It is our policy not to do anything that could infringe on the rights of asylum seekers”, Douglas said.
But the MP for Oxford and Abington, Evans Harris, wants the Home Office to take tougher actions to weed out unwanted elements in Britain. Evans says: “If they don't act tough, then other people will deliberately develop fatal kidney failure in order to evade immigration control”, Harris said.
Worried by the plight of failed asylum seekers in the UK, the Hackney Migrant Centre has begun rendering humanitarian services for those denied refuge by the Home Office.
“The HMC will raise money to help people who are denied asylum; feed, train and provide medical and legal services for them”, HMC explained.
Wanted: A humane asylum system for the UK

Wanted: A humane asylum system for the UK
by Sunday Daniel
One of the most topical issues in the UK has to do with immigration and the treatment of asylum seekers. The United Kingdom, which is a signatory to the United Nations Convention of 1951, which authorises nations to grant asylum to people fleeing from repressions and wars, harbours a large population of asylum seekers and refugees. It is also a signatory to the UN Convention on Human Rights of 1974, which guarantees individuals freedom.
However, concerns are being raised by international bodies, human rights groups and individuals that those seeking sanctuary in the UK are not fairly treated by immigration officials. The contention is that asylum seekers, including children, are detained at various stages, deported or maltreated, a charge which Home Office denies but promises to review the detention of child asylum seekers.
It has also emerged that the UK remains the only EU nation still detaining asylum-seeking children.
Besides that, rights groups complain that the UK immigration officials torture asylum seekers, while the process of appeals and entitlement is generally very frustrating. Article 3 of the European Union Convention on Human Rights prohibits the torture of persons. It states: “No person shall be subjected to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment.”
The UK displayed an inhuman action in the recent deportation of a cancer patient and widow, Ama Sumani, from her hospital bed in Wales to Ghana. Although the Head of the Border and Immigration Agency, Lin Homer, tried to justify the action before the House of Commons on January 15, 2008, it is doubtful if such action could be justified under the EU or the UN law. Assuming that Sumani breached any law, her health condition should have prompted the BIA officials to show a little compassion and restrain. Where has the milk of human kindness suddenly gone in the UK that such a precarious person should be driven away with impunity just as her five-year visa expired?
While the UK continues to assure that it is committed to a just and fair asylum system, its actions in some instances, portray the exact opposite. Between 2006 and 2007, no fewer than 2000 asylum seekers have been evicted from the UK, amongst them, three Darfuris and 32 Iraqis who should have been protected here because of the wars in their countries, thus defeating the aim of asylum.
We wish to appeal to the UK to take urgent steps to reform its asylum system and give it a human face so as to restore the needed confidence. Britain has contributed immensely to the enthronement of democracy and good governance across the globe and has emerged as a role model for other countries. It should be mindful that any negative action on its part could send a wrong signal to despotic regimes that it is trying to transform. It must therefore address the issues raised and make its asylum system more humane and people-oriented. The time to do it is now.