Press Archives

23 August 2005

Falling asylum claims cause for shame not celebration

The Home Office figures today confirm that asylum claims have yet again dropped.

Habib Rahman, Chief Executive of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, said:

"This is part of a trend that is indicating a drastic drop on the number of asylum claims throughout the developed industrialised world. We should not be proud that more people do not claim asylum in the United Kingdom given that one in three hundred of the world's people is fleeing persecution, violence or war.

"JCWI believes that many potential asylum seekers may have been driven underground by the UK's harsh asylum regime. The inability to obtain legally aided immigration advice, and the enforced destitution, detention, and forcible removal of asylum seekers may act as powerful disincentives to make a claim.

"The latest changes - the refusal to guarantee indefinite leave to remain to bona fide refugees, and implementation of section nine of the 2004 asylum and immigration act making some families destitute if they do not return to war zones of their own accord - will doubtless ensure that the numbers keep plummeting, but that really is no cause for celebration."