Asylum Matters: Restoring Trust in the UK Asylum System: Centre for Social Justice Report

Asylum Matters, Restoring Trust in the UK Asylum System. Centre for Social Justice Report The executive summary and full report can be downloaded from http://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/default.asp?pageRef=37 Press release 15 December 2008: Laws that withdraw all support from asylum seekers should be scrapped as part of a far-reaching overhaul of the system designed to speed up decisions and return people to their home countries, according to a new report from the think-tank set up by the former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith. The 112-page report warns that the existing system forces refused applicants to choose between destitution and a twilight world dominated by prostitution and the black economy. At least 26,000 failed asylum seekers in Britain are subsisting on Red Cross food parcels and many more are reliant on charities for their survival. But there is no evidence that withdrawing financial support is having the effect that the Government intends. Only one in five failed asylum seekers returns voluntarily to their home country and most simply go underground. Other comparable countries achieve voluntary return rates as high as 80 per cent. But in the UK there are at least 450,000 asylum seekers in the system and a backlog of 280,000 failed applicants that will probably take nearly 20 years to resolve. “Making refused asylum seekers homeless and penniless is hugely counterproductive,” the report from the Centre for Social Justice says. “It is much more difficult to work with them to encourage voluntary return or to ensure timely removal.” Refugee Council response http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/news/press/2008/December/20081215.htm