The most comprehensive examination of the UK’s asylum system ever conducted has found it ‘marred by inhumanity’ and ‘not yet fit for purpose’.
An interim report, published yesterday by the Independent Asylum Commission (IAC), is a damning indictment of the Home Office’s failure to deal fairly with those applying for sanctuary in this country.
The IAC is carrying out an investigation in the wake of former home secretary John Reid’s comment that the UK asylum system is ‘not fit for purpose’.
IAC co-chair Ifath Nawaz, President of the Association of Muslim Lawyers, said that having listened to hundreds of testimonies, ‘the question is not should we provide sanctuary, but how.’
David Ramsbotham, a former Chief Inspector of Prisons said: ‘The treatment of asylum seekers falls seriously below the standards to be expected of a humane and civilised society.
‘In particular, the enforced destitution of many thousands of refused asylum seekers is indefensible and runs the risk of placing a shameful blemish on our nation’s proud record of providing for those who come here in search of sanctuary.’
The report describes UK asylum policy as ‘inhumane and oppressive’.
Among its findings are: ‘The overuse of detention, the scale of destitution and the severity of removals are all areas which need attention before the system can be described as fit for purpose.’
Refugee Council Chief Executive Donna Covey said: ‘What the IAC has concluded is that from decision making to deportation, from the widespread use of detention to the policy of enforced destitution, our asylum system is deeply flawed, treats vulnerable people in an inhumane way and brings shame on the UK.
‘Such findings cannot be ignored or brushed aside, and we hope ministers will take time to reflect on what the IAC has said and make the changes in public policy that are badly needed.’
Covey insisted: ‘We need a much more fair and humane approach – including a genuinely independent decision making process, an end to the widespread use of detention, an end to the policy of enforced destitution, and the restoration of asylum seeker’s entitlement to work.’
Meanwhile the charity, Bail for Immigration Detainees, called on the government to use the one year anniversary of the New Asylum Model as an opportunity to stop detaining asylum seekers while their claims are decided.
Since the national roll-out of the New Asylum Model in March 2007, 1,205 asylum seekers have had their claims decided in detention under the fast track process.
According to Amanda Shah, Assistant Director of Bail for Immigration Detainees: ‘The government is sticking to its target for 30 per cent of new asylum claims to be heard in detention without justifying the continued need for the detained fast track since the introduction of the New Asylum Model.
‘Non-detained processes exist and they should be used instead.’
Shah added: ‘Since the government started to detain asylum seekers for its own administrative convenience, children, torture survivors and women who have been trafficked to the UK have all been wrongly detained while their asylum cases have been decided.
‘This is a shameful way to treat vulnerable people coming to the UK in search of sanctuary.’
