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UN asylum report welcomes Home Office progress
LONDON April 5 (UNHCR) - A UN Refugee Agency report into the determination of refugee status in the UK has welcomed progress in examining asylum claims, in particular through the recently unveiled New Asylum Model (NAM), but urges further improvements across the breadth of the UK’s asylum screening system.
The study welcomed the progress made by the Government in the implementation of recommendations from UNHCR’s previous three audit reports on the Home Office asylum system, particularly in relation to increasing the standards of recruitment, the acknowledgment of a need for more in-depth training and the commitment to introduce independent accreditation of NAM Case Owners. Despite the improvements, UNHCR recommends that case workers receive clearer guidance on how to establish the facts of a case.
“Asylum is not meant to assure entry for every arrival into the UK, only those facing persecution or a real threat to life,” said Bemma Donkoh, UNHCR representative to the UK.
"Improving the asylum system through solid training of decision makers, informed interpretation and application of the refugee definition, better interviewing practices and country of origin information will help ensure timely protection of refugees, speedier decisions and enhanced public confidence while also saving the British taxpayer’s money," Donkoh added.
The New Asylum Model provides for far closer and consistent contact between the asylum claimant and the official handling the claim. NAM features a regionalisation of the processing of asylum claims, as well as handling of cases by a single caseworker from the start of the process to its conclusion be that through the integration of a recognised refugee fleeing persecution, or the removal of an unsuccessful asylum claimant.
In the report, UNHCR urged the Government to fully implement its key recommendations so that the backlog of older asylum claims, the so-called “legacy” cases lodged prior to NAM’s recent roll-out, would also benefit from the much-improved training being implemented under the new system. The UN Refugee Agency called on the Government to provide more comprehensive training on refugee and human rights law and the principles of refugee status determination for caseworkers handling both the legacy and new cases.
"Decisions on claims that involve protection issues, whether they be fresh claims or those that have been outstanding for a period of time, require very specialist skills," Donkoh said. "We think the significant advances and skills-building which have been observed in certain areas of the process of decision making should be applied across the board."
UNHCR has audited the Home Office's first-instance asylum decisions since mid-2004 at the invitation of the Government under a project called the Quality Initiative (QI), and its latest report covers the period March to December.
The UNHCR report also welcomed measures taken by the Home Office to improve the establishment of assessment of credibility and deciding on claims for international protection, which its ongoing audit of decision-making suggests remains a challenging area for decision makers, including those in NAM.
"Many asylum claims in the United Kingdom are dismissed when the asylum seeker's accounts are not accepted by caseworkers, regardless of the true validity of their claim," Donkoh said. "But when decisions are made without a full understanding of the background, refugees may be returned home to face grave risks."
Story date: 05 April 2007
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