The fatal failings of the UK asylum system
March 10, 2010 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
The Guardian – Last weekend, three members of a family jumped together to their deaths from a Glasgow tower block. It’s said that they were Russians whose asylum claims had been rejected. However, most deaths among asylum seekers don’t make national news, as is made clear by a report compiled by Harmit Athwal for the Institute for Race Relations in 2006.
Driven to Desperate Measures catalogued the deaths of 213 asylum seekers, refugees and migrant workers who had been murdered in racist attacks or died in accidents since 1989; 57 had killed themselves, and – a little-known, appalling fact – nine of these had set themselves on fire, mostly in public places; and 11 died at their own hands in immigration detention centres or holding centres. But most of the suicides took place in the community, which can be a cold place for fugitives from horrors most of us will never have to face.
I rang Athwal to ask if there had been more suicides since her grim dossier came out. She opened a file and counted up to 39, although this, she said, wasn’t a comprehensive figure. She is the only person keeping count, getting details from asylum seeker and refugee networks, NGOs, charities, campaigners, social workers and local papers.
Glasgow deaths raise concern over treatment of asylum seekers
March 9, 2010 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
Ekklesia – A charity has expressed concern at the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers after three people plunged to their deaths from the 15th floor of a block of flats in Glasgow.
The tragic incident took place on Sunday morning, 7 March 2010.
Police have been investigating the deaths of two men and a woman at the Red Road block of flats in the Springburn area of Glasgow, reports Independent Catholic News (http://www.indcatholicnews.com/).
The identity of the three has not been confirmed, but neighbours believe they may be asylum seekers from Kosovo whose applications were rejected.
Robina Qureshi, the director of Positive Action in Housing (PAH), said: “The Red Road flats has housed hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers. We are concerned because [many] of our clients who are from refugee communities were living in the area. They live their daily lives under extreme pressure for years because their lives are on hold while they wait to hear if they will be granted leave to remain by the UK Borders Agency.”
Qureshi added: “As staff, we are daily confronted with the reality of asylum seekers coming into the office crying and upset because they have just been told they must leave the country and their money and housing is stopped a week later. It’s a big shock, having nowhere to live, no money for food, and being forbidden to work, and it’s like this for years, then they are faced with their biggest terror, destitution, disappearing or being detained.”
200 Zimbabweans currently detained in UK
March 6, 2010 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
The Zimbabwe Times – The British government is holding at least 209 Zimbabweans at its immigration centres and prisons, it was announced Thursday.
The figure was announced in the House of Lords after a question had been raised on the deportation of foreign nationals and the number of them currently held in detention centres and prisons in Britain.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office Lord Alan West of Spithead said the British government had announced in a written ministerial statement on October 29 last year that authorities were looking to normalising the returns policy to Zimbabwe progressively as and when the political situation developed.
According to latest HM Prison Service figures, as at December 18, 2009, there were 209 Zimbabwean nationals in prisons including those in the immigration removal centres, Dover, Haslar and Lindholme.
The 209 included those held on remand, serving custodial sentences or held under the Immigration Act 1971.
Detainees beaten: UKBA bosses to be quizzed
March 3, 2010 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
The Guardian – Senior Home Office officials will be questioned this week over allegations that women inside Yarl’s Wood immigration detention centre were assaulted by staff using riot shields.
The Observer has gathered a series of testimonies from detainees inside the Bedfordshire centre who claimed they had witnessed women being beaten and injured during a disturbance this month.
One image, taken inside Yarl’s Wood on a mobile phone, reveals extensive bruising to a woman’s shoulder and legs allegedly caused by staff during the incident on 8 February, days after dozens of asylum seekers instigated a hunger strike over the length of their detention. Another image shows injuries to a detainee’s finger after a guard had allegedly slammed a window on her hand.
On Tuesday, Lin Homer, chief executive of the UK Border Agency, and John Vine, the agency’s chief inspector, are expected to be questioned by the home affairs select committee over the claims, which are denied by staff.
Women fast-tracked to asylum denial
March 3, 2010 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
The Guardian – The UK Border Agency has published a report today showing that targets to speed up the asylum procedure are unachievable. The chief inspector, John Vine, said that the agency deals with vulnerable people and “we should remember that, first and foremost, this is about people’s lives”.
But how do hundreds of women, including vulnerable ones with complex cases, end up in a Kafkaesque procedure known as the detained fast track (DFT) which is designed for straightforward cases with a quick resolution?
That’s the question posed in a new report by Human Rights Watch published this week, Fast-Tracked Unfairness: Detention and Denial of Women Asylum Seekers in the UK.
Our research has shown that women with complex asylum claims – often based on family violence, rape or trafficking – are now being shunted through this fast-track system, even though their cases are inherently not capable of quick resolution.
Fewer asylum seekers and immigrants arrive in UK
February 26, 2010 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
The Guardian – The number of new asylum seekers coming to Britain has plummeted by 30% in the past year and the flow of central and east European migrants, including from Poland, has also continued to decline, according to the 2009 immigration figures published today.
However, the Office of National Statistics said there was little change in the pattern of long-term migration to Britain with 518,000 people coming to the UK to live, work or study in the year to June 2009 and 370,000 leaving to live abroad.
This gives a net migration figure of 147,000 for the year to June 2009 — a decline from the net migration figure of 168,000 the previous year and further undermining claims that Britain’s population will hit 70 million by 2029.
UK to ignore EU directive on Asylum Detentions
February 25, 2010 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
The Guardian – Home Office ministers are to opt out of a European directive which lays down minimum standards for the treatment of asylum claims because it would mean abandoning a fast-track process that leads to hundreds of asylum seekers being detained every year.
The decision has been criticised by immigration lawyers and peers who believe the detention of asylum seekers at Yarl’s Wood and Harmondsworth removal centres “under the detained fast-track” procedure leads to rushed and unfair decisions because there is no time to gather evidence.
The fast-track asylum procedure was introduced in 2003 and involves immigration officers making an initial decision within two weeks while the asylum seeker is in detention.
3rd Country Removal Cases Reviewed
February 15, 2010 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
Free Movement – There were developments last week in the world of third country removal cases, and now seems like a good moment to review the current position.
The Dublin II Regulation (not its official title) enables EU states to return an asylum seeker to the country through which the asylum seeker first entered the EU. There are certain qualifications to that power, both legally and practically, but that is the nub of it. The Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants etc) Act 2004 established binding legal presumptions that removal to EU states cannot breach Article 3 ECHR.
In the case of TI v United Kingdom [2000] INLR 211 the European Court of Human Rights held that Dublin II did not absolve the United Kingdom from responsibility to ensure that a decision to expel an asylum seeker to another Member State did not expose that asylum seeker, at one remove, to treatment contrary to article 3 of the Convention. This is the concept of refoulement, to which there is no direct English language equivalent. My French is terrible, but I’m told its meaning is equivalent to ‘return, whether directly or indirectly’.
Yarl’s Wood Hunger Strikers Illtreated
February 13, 2010 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
The Guardian – Pressure is mounting for an inquiry after female hunger strikers at Yarl’s Wood described squalid conditions and made an allegation of racism at the immigration detention centre.
As the Home Office admitted improvements were needed at the Bedfordshire centre, it emerged that four “ringleaders” had been transferred to prison.
About 70 women were detained in an airless corridor without water or toilet facilities on Monday, three days after the start of the hunger strike.
“It is essential for the integrity of the asylum system that there is proper verification of exactly what happened last Monday at Yarl’s Wood,” said the Tory MP for North East Bedfordshire, Alistair Burt. “There should be an independent inquiry or at least independent report, possibly through the chief inspector of prisons.”
Parliamentary Ombudsman Criticizes UKBA’s Failings
February 9, 2010 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
The Guardian - The UK Border Agency’s failure to manage its workload is penalising individuals, draining public funds and jeopardising confidence in the asylum and immigration system, according to a report published today.
The report, by the parliamentary ombudsman, finds that the UKBA still has “a long way to go” to ensure that its administration, complaints handling procedures and remedy mechanisms are adequate.
It gives examples of how the UKBA’s failure to resolve applications within a reasonable period has had a damaging effect on the individuals involved and public perceptions of the system.
In one case, a Somali man who applied for asylum and was granted indefinite leave to remain in May 2000 did not receive his status documents until February 2008.
