Asylum applications rise
Asylum applications rose by nine per cent between July and September 2004 compared to the previous three months, Home Office statistics show.
But they remain 20 per cent down on the same period last year and 67 per cent below their peak in October 2002.
Home Office Minister Des Browne put the quarterly increase down to “normal seasonal variations” and an increase in applications in September ahead of tougher new measures that came in to force at the end of that month.
And he announced new measures to further crack down on abuse of the asylum system, including an end to the special measures for Zimbabwe under which the return of failed asylum seekers to the country was suspended, following evidence that it had been exploited.
Mr Browne said: “We are clearly going in the right direction but we are not complacent and, having significantly reduced unfounded asylum applications we are stepping up action on removals.”
On Zimbabwe, he added: “Zimbabweans and other foreign nationals posing as Zimbabweans, who do not need international protection, make asylum claims confident that even when claims are refused they will not be returned. We need to stop this abuse while continuing to offer protection to genuine refugees.”
The imminent re-opening of the Harmondsworth removal centre, Middlesex, and the new secure facility at Colnbrook would allows the Government to meet its target to ensure the number of removals exceeded the number of unfounded asylum claims by the end of 2005.
Harmondsworth was closed in the summer following a disturbance. A report into this and the disturbance at Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre in 2002 will be published later today.
