United Refugee Organization

Refugee Council response to Simplifying Immigration Law: an initial consultation [August 2007]

In June 2007 the Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) issued a consultation document setting out how it plans to proceed with its intention to rationalise immigration legislation. BIA plans to have a further more detailed Consultation at the end of 2007 and to legislate in the autumn of 2008.

Although consolidation of the existing legislation is extremely welcome, and long overdue, it is clear that the government’s intention is to go much further into a process of simplification that seems to be concerned more with speed and ease of processing immigration cases rather than ensuring the protection of refugee and human rights. It is not clear at this stage what the future overall framework will look like and the Refugee Council is urgently seeking more detail prior to the next stage of Consultation. The current concerns are outlined in this response.

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The number of people applying for asylum in the UK fell by over 2,000 in 2006 to its lowest level since 1993, according to statistics published by the Home Office today.

The figures show that 23,610 applications, excluding dependants, were lodged last year, representing an eight per cent fall in applications when compared with 2005.

While asylum applications continue to fall, the removal of those with no right to be in the UK reached record levels. In 2006, 63,865 people were removed from the UK, an increase of ten per cent on 2005 levels. The number of failed asylum seekers, excluding dependants, removed last year increased by 19 per cent. (more…)