UK Declares Amnesty for Asylum Seekers

Asylum seekers will be given the right to live in the UK without having face-to-face interviews to check their claims under government plans to reduce the backlog of cases.



A group of people thought to be migrants walk through the immigration processing centre in Dover, Kent, earlier this month - Gareth Fuller/PA© Gareth Fuller/PA

More than 12,000 migrants from five countries with the highest asylum success rates will have their applications processed on paper, with the “vast majority” given the green light to stay in the UK without an interview.

The move – which has been described an “amnesty in all but name” by critics – is designed to help meet Rishi Sunak’s pledge to clear a backlog of more than 90,000 outstanding “older” asylum claims by the end of this year.

On Thursday, Home Office officials will start contacting the asylum seekers, from Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Eritrea and Yemen, and give them a 20-day deadline to fill in and return fast-track claims forms.

Officials expect 95 per cent to be given leave to remain for at least five years, although those who fail to complete the 10-page form “without reasonable explanation” could have their claims withdrawn.

On Wednesday, Tory backbenchers and campaigners criticised the move as effectively granting an amnesty that could encourage more migrants to cross the Channel and even pose a security risk.

One backbench Conservative MP said: “No matter how people want to dress this up, this is an amnesty and will cause an outcry in many constituencies. Rishi will become the poster boy for the smuggling gangs, and encourage yet more to come across the Channel.”

Marco Longhi, the Tory MP for Dudley North, said the scheme appeared on the face of it to be “completely wrong” when migrants who had entered the UK illegally should be removed and have their claims processed overseas. “I would not support these measures until I see the details and can be convinced otherwise,” he said.

It is the first mass asylum acceptance scheme since 2006, when the then Labour government created a special Home Office directorate to clear a backlog of nearly 400,000 asylum cases. That initiative covered a broader range of asylum seekers and also offered successful claimants indefinite leave to remain in the UK.

The new scheme comes as the Government is braced for the asylum backlog to pass 150,000 for the first time in 20 years, at a cost £2.1 billion, when figures are published on Thursday. It will increase pressure on Mr Sunak and Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, to stop the surge of small boats crossing the Channel.

On Wednesday, Mrs Braverman said housing asylum seekers in hotels was causing “understandable tensions” following ugly clashes on Merseyside.

She said violence was “never acceptable” but “we are all frustrated with the situation” and it is not “racist or bigoted” to acknowledge the problems caused to communities. Some 40,000 asylum seekers are currently being housed in hotels at a cost of up to £7 million a day.

As part of Mr Sunak’s crackdown on illegal immigration, one of his five priorities, he has pledged to clear 92,601 legacy cases – asylum claims submitted by June 2022, when new asylum rules were introduced through the Nationality and Borders Act.

Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Eritrea and Yemen have been chosen because they have approval rates of 95 per cent or more, but the scheme is likely to be extended to asylum seekers from other nations as officials seek to reduce the backlog further.

Only those who fail to provide enough information will be interviewed, but officials expected the “vast majority” to be approved on paper. Security and biometric checks, such as fingerprints, will continue to be made.

‘A dangerous folly’

Alp Mehmet, the chairman of the think tank Migration Watch said: “This is an amnesty in all but name. The message to the criminal gangs is, if you get your clients to destroy their ID and claim to be from a ‘high success’ country, they’ll be tick-boxed into the UK.

“The triple killer of Tom Roberts came from such a country, and had been denied asylum in Norway before our already lax system allowed him to con his way in. The Government’s plan is a dangerous folly. The Home Secretary should think again.”

The Home Office denied it was an “amnesty” because asylum seekers will not be granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK as in previous schemes. Instead, they will be eligible for leave to remain for five years, after which their right to settle will be considered.

Lawyers warned there was a risk that asylum seekers could disappear into the black economy if they did not submit their form within 20 days and faced the risk of having their application withdrawn.

Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “It cannot be fair or reasonable to expect people to complete a lengthy form only in English in a matter of weeks, especially for those who don’t have access to legal advice and don’t speak English.”