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Delays in the Asylum System — [David Mundell in the Chair]
07 July 2021
Lead MP
Navendu Mishra
Stockport
Lab
Responding Minister
Chris Philp
Tags
Asylum & RefugeesNHSEmploymentForeign AffairsMental HealthLocal Government
Word Count: 13989
Other Contributors: 12
At a Glance
Navendu Mishra raised concerns about delays in the asylum system — [david mundell in the chair] in Westminster Hall. A government minister responded.
Key Requests to Government:
The MP urges the government to enable asylum seekers to work, lift the ban on their right to employment and improve the dispersal system for better distribution across local authorities. He also calls for reforms in the registration, screening, and decision-making process as proposed by the United Nations Human Rights Council.
How the Debate Unfolded
MPs spoke in turn to share their views and ask questions. Here's what each person said:
Lead Contributor
The MP is concerned about the delays in the asylum system and the mistreatment of asylum seekers. He mentions that over half of the almost 40,000 people in detention centres have been waiting for a decision for more than a year, with many having waited up to five years. The average wait time for an asylum decision is 51 days, with some cases taking up to 82 days. He also highlights issues such as the Aspen card handover debacle and the poor treatment of women in the asylum process. Additionally, he notes high levels of mental health problems among asylum seekers, with refugees being five times more likely than the general UK population to have mental health needs.
Southgate and Wood Green
Mr Charalambous highlighted the endemic delays in the UK's asylum system, citing data from the Refugee Council that showed a tenfold increase in child asylum seekers waiting for decisions since 2012. He also mentioned the high number of people waiting for initial decisions and the detrimental impact on mental health due to prolonged uncertainty.
Claudia Webbe
Lab
Westminster North
There are over 66,000 people waiting for an initial decision on their asylum claim, with three quarters of them having waited longer than six months. Claudia expressed concern about the increase in children waiting more than a year from 563 to 6,887 in 2020. She criticised the government's Nationality and Borders Bill for its anti-refugee stance.
Florence Eshalomi
Lab Co-op
Vauxhall and Camberwell Green
Over 50,000 people have waited more than six months for an initial decision on their asylum applications. Florence highlighted cases of her constituents who are still waiting for their interviews despite facing severe hardships, including one victim of trafficking and another who was a victim of acid attack.
Jim Shannon
DUP
Strangford
Jim Shannon expressed concern about the delays in the asylum system and called for better treatment of asylum seekers while their status is being determined. He highlighted the success of the Syrian resettlement scheme and asked if there are plans to implement similar schemes on a wider scale. Shannon also raised issues such as lengthy waiting times for decisions, with some children waiting over a year and 55 applicants having waited five years. The British Red Cross was cited as requesting improvements in decision-making speed and support for integration. Suggested that the Minister and the Government set targets for reducing asylum numbers.
Hayes and Harlington
McDonnell raises the plight of detained asylum seekers who have faced trauma and uncertainty. He criticises indefinite detention, citing 38 deaths in detention since 2000 and endemic self-harm within the system. He urges for alternatives to detention to be developed.
Kate Osamor
Lab Co-op
Edmonton and Winchmore Hill
Delays in the asylum system are causing significant distress to constituents like Hanna, who waited almost two years for a response after making an asylum claim, and Erkin, who fled genocide in China but had to wait more than a year for his interview. Kate Osamor called for reversing the Home Office's decision to move away from the six-month service standard, reducing unnecessary interviews, and providing frontline workers with necessary resources.
Kim Johnson
Lab
Liverpool Riverside
Asylum seekers face appalling treatment by the Home Office, including living on £5 a day and being housed in substandard accommodation. The system causes significant mental health deterioration among asylum seekers due to prolonged uncertainty and lack of support. Kim calls for urgent action to address delays, proposing measures like investing in caseworkers and establishing a backlog clearance team.
Patrick Grady
SNP
Glasgow North
He highlighted the significant and growing backlog of cases in the asylum system, noting that individual Home Office officials are not to blame but rather the policies they implement. He mentioned specific examples from his constituency where constituents waited over six months for a response. Grady also raised concerns about substandard accommodation provided by the Home Office, citing the tragic incident at the Park Inn hotel and calling for better support and trauma counselling for those affected.
Paula Barker
Lab
Liverpool Wavertree
The asylum system is chaotic and causing human misery, with case loads doubling since 2014 due to workforce issues such as downgrading decision-making grades and failing recruitment. The 'New Plan for Immigration' does not address the backlog and treats asylum seekers poorly.
Salford
Rebecca Long-Bailey highlighted a constituent waiting over four years for an asylum decision, emphasizing the need to address the backlog and warning against proposals that would criminalize irregular arrivals and limit access to protection. She cited concerns from multiple bodies about the rise in backlogs and called on the Minister to reconsider these cruel and unworkable immigration plans.
Tim Farron
Lib Dem
Westmorland and Lonsdale
Tim Farron highlighted the significant backlog in the asylum system, noting that 66,185 people are awaiting a decision, with 50,000 waiting over six months. He criticised the government's rhetoric on being overwhelmed by asylum seekers, pointing out lower numbers compared to previous years and other countries. Farron argued against the notion of 'bogus' asylum seekers and called for a compassionate approach, suggesting that people in the asylum process should be given the right to work.
Virendra Sharma
Lab
Ealing, Southall
I am concerned about the significant delays in processing asylum applications. The average wait time for a decision is now over nine months, which is unacceptable and causes immense distress to those seeking refuge. The asylum system is failing those who need sanctuary, with delays increasing tenfold from over 3,000 people in 2010 to 33,000 in 2020. Every year of delay costs the Home Office at least an additional £8,000 per person, totalling over £200 million. The system must be simplified and more caseworkers recruited.
Government Response
Chris Philp
Government Response
The Home Office recognises the importance of addressing delays in the asylum system. Efforts are underway to reduce backlog, including the establishment of new decision-making units and the introduction of a digital claims process aimed at improving turnaround times. Thank you, Mr Mundell. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship—I think for the first time, and I hope not for the last.
Let me outline the steps that the United Kingdom has been taking and is taking to discharge our obligations to people who are in need of protection; they are obligations that we stand by and will not resile from. Our resettlement programme, which has taken off since around 2015, has seen a total of 25,000 people directly resettled into the United Kingdom from places of danger, with 20,000 under the vulnerable persons resettlement scheme focusing on Syria. This number is more than any other European country.
We also offer safe and legal routes via refugee family reunion, which has seen about 29,000 people come into the UK over the past five or six years, half of whom were children. The UK received 44,800 individual asylum applications in 2019, making us fifth among EU countries for that year, and only Greece had a higher intake than the UK's 3,775 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children under 18.
When it comes to supporting asylum seekers, we provide accommodation, free healthcare, council tax and utilities paid for, free education for those under 18, and a cash allowance. The system costs about £1 billion a year due to the backlog, making our provisions more generous than many European countries.
The Nationality and Borders Bill is intended to be fair to those in genuine need but firm where people abuse the system, continuing the resettlement programme beyond the 20,000 commitment met earlier this year. The bill aims to shut down illegal routes into the UK by ensuring that anyone crossing the English Channel from France does not directly flee a war zone and should claim asylum at their first safe place.
Regarding delays in the asylum system, they are higher now than last year due to disruption caused by covid-19. Asylum interviews stopped entirely for months as it was unsafe to have face-to-face interviews. The number of decisions taken has been dramatically lower over the past year and three months, leading to a backlog and delays.
To address this, we are introducing remote interviewing by video link, trialling interviews in places like Napier barracks, opening additional registration centres across the UK, investing in better IT systems, shortening letters for granted asylum cases, and introducing specialist caseworkers. The aim is to increase staffing levels from 550 full-time equivalents to 1,000 over time to speed up decision-making.
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