By Unzeela Manzoor, BA Politics and International Relations
In late February of this year, the Home Office announced reforms to their asylum system. These reforms include a new 11-page document containing a questionnaire which is set to replace the initial interview process. The Home Office has requested for the document to be completed in English within 20 days and will be sent to over 12,000 asylum seekers who are fleeing from war-torn countries such as Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan.
The Home Office has spent the last few years drawing up different reforms. For instance, the controversial Rwanda Asylum Deal in April 2022, initiated by Home Secretary at the time Priti Patel, outsourced the UK’s asylum responsibilities to Rwanda. Measures such as these are becoming desperate attempts to ease the burden of the asylum backlog on the UK government, which has now reached a momentous record of over 160,000 unresolved claims.
The backlog of this current asylum system is a result of several factors, including the lack of resources, legal complexities and a high volume of demand. This has been worsened by delays and inactivity as a result of the UK lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision to use questionnaires comes as an effort to address these issues, and the Home Office has stated that questionnaires will only be used for straightforward cases and that they will be reviewed by caseworkers with appropriate training and expertise. They have also encouraged the use of online translation tools to help with the answering process.
This new questionnaire program has been met with severe criticism by legal experts, who have claimed that 20 days is not enough time for claimants to obtain consultation and advice from specialists. Further criticism has been received over the fact that the questionnaire is only being offered in English. Many have claimed that these questionnaires are being aimed at people who are not fluent in English. This has led organisations, such as Amnesty International UK’s Refugee and Migrant Rights Director Steve Valdez Symonds, to conclude that this policy is not just ‘inefficient’ but also ‘discriminatory’. The nature of the questions is complex and includes inquiries into the personal and familial histories of asylum seekers, as well as questioning their journey to the United Kingdom.
Officials from the organisation Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants have commented that this policy is unfair to refugees that have fled ‘desperate circumstances’ and have been waiting for over a year for their requests to be processed. Caitlin Boswell, from the same organisation, has noted that ‘No one’s right to refuge should be jeopardised because they weren’t able to fill in an unwieldy form in a language they don’t speak.’
Photo Credit: Alamy.