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9th August
Letter
to the Daily Mirror
Re: Sue Carroll column “Wake up to home truths on asylum”
Dear Mr Wallace,
Your columnist’s story of 9 August, “Wake up to home truths on asylum” unnecessarily conflates the issues of asylum and immigration. Asylum issues and refugee protection have become inextricably linked with the question of international migration, particularly irregular migration. However, there is a need for news outlets to recognise the United Kingdom’s need to reconcile legitimate national interests, such as migration controls, with international legal and humanitarian obligations towards uprooted people.
Ms Carroll’s column relies on a recent Daily Express story for its claim that “more than £1billion has been spent on legal aid for asylum seekers in the past ten years”. However, following a review in 2003, the government has brought in a limit of five hours legal aid for asylum seekers. That same article in the Daily Express states in its final paragraph that, “the Legal Services Commission, which looks after legal aid in England and Wales, said the changes had meant a big reduction in the money spent on asylum cases since 2003-'04”, which was not reflected in Ms Carroll’s piece.
There are other cost drivers which are not touched upon the article. The most important of these is the problem of the quality of decision-making by the Home Office in the first instance. Since 2003, the UN refugee agency and the Home Office have been collaboratively working to improve the quality of the Home Office’s asylum decision-making in the first instance, thus saving taxpayers’ money due of diminished need for appeals.
Ms Carroll’s column also perpetuates a long standing myth that asylum seekers are ahead of taxpayers in the housing queue. In actual fact, asylum seekers are ineligible for the social housing to which UK citizens are entitled. Accommodation is provided under a separate National Asylum Support Service scheme.
The UN Refugee Agency is saddened that issues of migration on the one hand and asylum on the other are so frequently treated as one in large sections of the press. UNHCR hopes that future Daily Mirror articles will recognise these important distinctions. If any further clarification is needed, or you would like to know more about the joint Home Office-UNHCR Quality Initiative project in particular, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Yours Sincerely,
Peter Kessler
Senior External Affairs Officer
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