Asylum claims fall
The number of people claiming asylum in the UK has fallen by over 10 per cent, official figures show.
Between April and June 2005 the Home Office recorded 6,200 applications – a fall of 11 per cent on the figures for January to March, and a 21 per cent fall compared with the same period last year.
But the government is facing criticism both for using asylum statistics as a way of guiding asylum policy, and for missing targets on the removal of failed asylum seekers.
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said: “It is impossible to draw conclusions from these numbers as international circumstances change from month to month.”
“Targets and statistics shouldn’t guide asylum policy. We should always be welcoming those fleeing persecution but be firm with removing those who don’t have a genuine case.”
Margaret Lally, deputy chief executive of the Refugee Council added: “The government needs to stop measuring the success of its asylum policy simply on the basis of the number of people claiming asylum and start to address more fundamental problems.”
The Conservatives, meanwhile, questioned what the government planned to do about the increasing number of failed asylum seekers who remained in the country.
According to the figures there were 6,045 failed applications for asylum on initial decision, and 3,590 individuals were removed.
Immigration spokesman Humfrey Malins said: “This makes a mockery of the government’s target to deport more failed asylum seekers than arrive.
“The number of failed asylum seekers who remain in the country continues to increase – what are the government going to do about it? At this rate it would take nearly 20 years just to deal with those already here – let alone deal with future arrivals.”
Today’s figures also show that the number of appeals heard fell by nine per cent on the first quarter and 29 per cent on the same period last year.
Four out of five appeals were dismissed, although this falls to around half for decisions made on claims from Russian and Eritrean nationals.
The Refugee Council said this reflected an “unacceptably poor” standard of decision-making on asylum claims.
Ms Lally added: “The measure of a good asylum system is not in the numbers it turns away but in its ability to identify refugees who need protection and give it to them.”
