When debating such an important issue, it’s vital that we are armed with facts. We hope this helps.
What is a refugee?
According to Article 1 of the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, the definition of a refugee is someone who: ‘owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.’
What is an asylum seeker?
The definition of an asylum seeker is someone who has arrived in a country and asked for asylum. Until they receive a decision as to whether or not they are a refugee, they are known as an asylum seeker. In the UK, this means they do not have the same rights as a refugee or a British citizen would. For example, people seeking asylum aren’t allowed to work.
The right to seek asylum is a legal right we all share. It isn’t illegal to seek asylum, because seeking asylum is a legal process. It also isn’t illegal to be refused asylum – it just means you haven’t been able to meet the very strict criteria to prove your need for protection as a refugee.
Aren’t they ‘illegal’/coming here illegally?
There is no such thing as an ‘illegal’ person. It is legal to claim asylum in the UK no matter how you arrived here (even via a dinghy). The government have closed most of the ‘safe’ (sometimes incorrectly referred to as ‘legal’) routes to claim asylum from abroad and have stated that asylum seekers must be in this country before claiming asylum – pushing desperate people into making dangerous journeys such as crossing the Channel in dinghies before they can make a claim.
Do people have to claim asylum in the first safe country they reach?
No. This is a complete fallacy. The UN Refugee Convention does not make this requirement of refugees, and UK case law supports this interpretation. Refugees can legitimately make a claim for asylum in the UK after passing through other “safe” countries. People trying to cross the Channel can legitimately claim asylum in the UK if they reach it.
When the UK was a member of the EU, refugees who arrived in the UK after passing through another EU country could, under certain circumstances, be returned to the first EU country they entered, under an EU law known as the Dublin Regulation. Having left the EU, this no longer applies.
Why can’t asylum seekers go somewhere else?
They do. In numbers significantly larger than those that seek to come to the UK. Worldwide, roughly 85% of all refugees live in developing regions, not in wealthy industrialised countries, and 73% of refugees live in countries neighbouring their countries of origin. Lebanon, for example, has around 1.4 million refugees – mostly from Syria and Palestine – in a population of 5.3 million. Worldwide, there are currently over 90 million people displaced from their homes.
Is the number of people seeking asylum in the UK increasing?
The number of asylum applications to the UK peaked in 2002 at 84,132. After that the number fell sharply to reach a twenty-year low of 17,916 in 2010. They then rose steadily reaching 32,733 in 2015. The number fell, then rose again and then dipped during the first year of the pandemic (2020). In 2022, it rose to 74,751 applications, the highest level since 2002.
In 2021, there were around 9 asylum applications for every 10,000 people living in the UK. Across the EU27 there were 14 asylum applications for every 10,000 people. The UK was therefore below the average among EU countries for asylum applications per head of population, ranking 16th among EU27 countries plus the UK on this measure.
People who originally came to the UK to seek asylum make up an estimated 5% of the UK’s foreign-born population and 0.6% of the UK’s total resident population in 2019. Of these, 56% had lived in the UK for sixteen years or more.
Are most claims bogus?
No. 75% of initial decisions made in 2022 have been grants of protection, meaning they have been awarded refugee status or humanitarian protection. Around 50% of those turned down are granted on appeal. This means that approximately 87-88% of asylum seekers have successful claims.
7% of asylum claimants are unaccompanied children. Even if granted asylum, they are not allowed to apply for their parents to join them in the UK. The Family Reunion rules are incredibly restrictive. Only spouses and dependent children are eligible to apply for family reunion visas. In 2022, only 4,473 family reunion visas were issued to partners and children of those granted asylum or humanitarian protection.
Aren’t we being ‘invaded’/‘swamped’ by refugees?
According to UNHCR statistics, as of November 2022 there were 231,597 refugees living in the UK. This is 0.34% (one-third of one percent) of the population.
Not including Ukrainians, in the year ending September 2022, just 15,987 people were granted asylum, humanitarian protection or other forms of leave. Of these, only 1,391 (8.7%) were resettled through various official resettlement schemes.
The number of Ukrainian refugees who arrived in the UK in 2022 was around 155,000 – barely 2% of Ukrainian refugees spread across Europe. This is equivalent to the total number of all people granted refuge in the UK from all origins in the previous 7 years (2014 to 2021).
Aren’t we ‘full up?’
Of course not. The Ordnance Survey states that just 1.4% of UK land is built on (houses, shops, offices, factories etc). Including gardens, this figure increases to around 5%.
In 2021, nationally, around half a million properties (including 2,000 in Dorset) were empty with a further quarter of a million used as ‘second homes.’ Indeed, the number of second homes (253,300) is very similar to the number of households identified as homeless or at risk of homelessness (268,000).
What does it cost to deal with asylum claims?
Under both international and UK Law, it is our obligation to process asylum claims. Economic impact studies show that the money spent processing claims and supporting refugees is far outweighed by the benefit of adding them to the economy (in terms of increased GDP and taxes). Over time, we profit from migrants!
The financial cost of operating the UK’s asylum system in the 2020/21 financial year was £1.4 billion. To give some perspective, this is also the amount spent by UK golfers on membership fees in 2022. The government has wasted approximately £15 billion through ‘fraud and error’ through its Covid contracts and schemes. The UK’s overall defence spending is currently £48 billion per year. According to the government’s own Office for Budget Responsibility, leaving the EU will cost the UK £88 billion a year.
Aren’t asylum seekers given lots of taxpayers’ money?
People seeking asylum are not allowed to claim benefits or work in the UK. If they are destitute and have no other means of supporting themselves, they can apply to receive asylum support. This is currently set at £45 per week (£6.43 per day). This includes their food costs. For those living in accommodation that provides meals, the amount is £9.10 per week (£1.30 per day).
Why are the asylum seekers for the proposed ‘barge’ all male?
Unless part of a family unit, single refugees are generally kept in single-sex accommodation. Regarding the all-male proposed population here, the government have said this is to reduce the need for additional local services. Elsewhere, there are all-female and family asylum seeker centres. According to the government’s latest immigration statistics, in the year ending September 2021, 59% of asylum applications were made by males, while 41% were made by females. This gender breakdown has remained relatively stable over the past few years.
Are they likely to be criminals?
No. They are far more likely to be well-educated doctors, teachers and architects. Many refuges are highly qualified, trained and skilled workers. For example, 38% of refugees from Syria living in the UK have a university degree.
According to a report by the Migration Policy Institute, immigrants, including those who arrive as refugees, are less likely to be incarcerated than native-born individuals. The report states that “research indicates that immigrants have lower incarceration rates and are less likely to be convicted of crimes than the native-born.”
It is important to remember that asylum seekers are individuals who are fleeing persecution, war, or other forms of violence in their home countries and are seeking protection and safety. They are subject to strict background checks and vetting processes by the authorities, and any criminal activity or history could result in the denial of their asylum application.
In Portland Port’s statement about the proposal, they state: “We are insisting that no economic migrants, criminals or under 18s are included in the population on board under a robust screening process.”
What is the extent of the backlog in asylum claim cases?
Back in 2020, it was reported that the average number of days that claimants had waited for an initial decision increased from 233 in 2017, to 351 in 2019, to 449 in 2020. For unaccompanied children who received a decision in 2020, it had reached 550 days.
Since then, it has only got worse! Indeed, the share of asylum applications that received an initial decision within six months fell from 87% in the second quarter of 2014 to just 6% in the second quarter of 2021. Most of this decrease took place before the increase in asylum applications that took place in 2021 and 2022.
A Home Affairs Committee report revealed that JUST 4% of claims made in the whole of 2021 had been processed by November 2022!
According to Home Office data, the total number of people awaiting an asylum decision more than doubled between 2020 and 2022, from around 70,000 to 166,300.
The number of cases waiting more than six months for an initial decision has more than doubled since 2020 and increased nearly ten-fold since 2016, suggesting a growing backlog of older cases.
In 2021, the average time taken to process an initial asylum claim was:
Austria 3.2 months
Spain 5.0 months
Germany 6.6 months
France 8.5 months
Sweden 8.5 months
Belgium 8.7 months
Netherlands 9.4 months
UK 20.1 months
In fact, the Charity Breaking Barriers which supports refugees into work, reports that the average time taken to process the asylum claims of those they support is now just under three years!
In 2021, Germany received around 191,000 asylum applicants (including family members), France 121,000, Spain 65,000, and the UK 56,000. However, at 101,000, the UK had the second biggest backlog of cases with only Germany having a bigger backlog.
What is causing the huge backlog in cases?
A report by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration points to several potential explanations for slow processing times, mostly around policy and administrative issues. These include the Home Office abandoning its six-month ‘service standard’ for asylum claims in January 2019, a target that has not yet been replaced; inadequate training; low staff morale; and high staff turnover.
Other factors that are likely to influence the time taken to process asylum applications include: the end of the Detained Fast-Track process in 2015; resource constraints or capacity; and the shifting characteristics of applicants themselves, with some claims taking longer to resolve than others.
The average number of asylum claim decisions made per caseworker has dropped substantially from 101 in 2015-16 to just 24 in 2021-22!
On 1st April 2014, the Home Office introduced an internal target, or ‘customer service standard’, to process 98% of “straightforward” cases within six months. The six-month service standard was abandoned in January 2019. As shown above, in 2020-21, the average wait time for an initial decision was 20 months!
Sources:
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn01403/
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9737/
https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/migration-to-the-uk-asylum/
https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/the-uks-asylum-backlog/
https://fullfact.org/immigration/refugees-first-safe-country/
https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/19736935.thousands-empty-homes-dorset-despite-housing-crisis/
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