Asylum
"Asylum Matters: Restoring Trust in the UK Asylum System" | Published 15 December 2008
105 page report analysing the problems faced by asylum seekers in bureaucratic limbo pending outcomes. Recommendations to ensure a fairer asylum system that lead to fairer outcomes and respect the dignity of those seeking asylum.
Click here for the Asylum Matters Report
Click here to read the Executive Summary
Asylum
Asylum seekers have fled torture, war and threats to their lives in the hope of finding sanctuary and safety in the UK. Historically the UK has a proud tradition of helping asylum seekers and in return they have contributed to the culture and achievement of this country. Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Isaiah Berlin and Tom Stoppard, whose constructions, thoughts and plays define realms of British life, were all refugees in their time.
The evidence gathered for this report shows that the welcome offered today falls far short of our traditional standards. When persecuted people arrive in the UK they are all too often met by a bureaucratic system that treats them like cattle, does not believe their stories and spits them out to face a life of homelessness, crime, illegal working and destitution in the UK.
It is left to the voluntary sector to pick up the pieces of these shattered lives. With little support from the Government or the general public these groups, on very limited budgets, do an heroic job stabilising asylum seekers lives, helping them through the asylum process and assisting them to return home or integrate into the UK.
The CSJ was born through a visit to Easterhouse Estate in Glasgow as the guest of Bob Holman. More than anyone else Bob Holman has opened my eyes to the problems and pockets of poverty across the UK, and it was Bob who encouraged me and the CSJ to set up a working group to look at asylum and destitution. The group has spent the last year touring the country, listening to asylum seekers and those who work with them.
In addition the group, commissioned two sets of YouGov polls and focus groups to understand the public’s attitude towards asylum and to test the policy solutions this report recommends.
The result is a report that clearly analyses the current asylum system and identifies the problems from the ground up. The report suggests practical solutions for restoring the UK’s tradition of providing a welcome to some of the most vulnerable people in the world.
Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP, from the foreword, "Asylum Matters"
