Thousands of asylum seekers in the UK could have their claims approved without attending a face-to-face interview, according to a new Home Office guidance published on Thursday.
In a bid to clear the soaring backlog of asylum applications, the Home Office is set to fast-track well-founded legacy claims made before June 28, 2022, when new rules in the Nationality and Borders Act took effect.
Under the new rules, legacy claimants who haven’t had a interview will instead be given a questionnaire, asking each claimant their personal details, the details of their claims, whether they wish to proceed with their applications, etc.
Applicants will have 20 working days to fill in the questionnaire, with a 10-day extension offered if they miss the initial deadline.
The returned questionnaires will then be cross-checked to address security or other issues, such as incidents of criminality or claimant vulnerability.
Specialist teams will get involved if such issues are identified, while other claimants could be granted asylum without attending an interview, given a targeted or shorter interview, or referred to the normal process for a substantive interview.
Those granted asylum will be allowed to work, and would also be expected to find their own accommodation.
However, those who fail to return the questionnaire within 30 days and don’t apply for a further extension may have their applications treated as “withdrawn.”
According to the guidance, the streamlined process will focus on legacy claimants from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Libya, Syria, and Yemen—nationalities that had asylum success rates of over 95 percent in 2022.
The process will not apply to unaccompanied asylum-seeking children or accompanied children who have claims not linked to a family group.
The department also said it’s pursuing a “wide range of programmes” to speed up the asylum decision-making process.
Officials insisted the move was not akin to a so-called “asylum amnesty,” and stressed that thorough security checks would still be carried out.
Some campaigners criticised the plans amid reports that asylum seekers will be required to fill out the form in English.
Caitlin Boswell from the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) said asylum seekers need the government to make quicker and fairer decisions, but that the new policy is “clumsy, unthinking, and could put people’s safety at risk.”
Boswell said the asylum seekers’ claims shouldn’t be “jeopardised because they weren’t able to fill in a long unwieldy form in a language they don’t speak,” saying the government “shouldn’t be cutting corners when it comes to making life-changing decisions on people’s futures.”
The Refugee Council’s chief executive, Enver Solomon, said moves to reduce the backlog were “welcome but the answer is not yet more bureaucratic hurdles and threats of applications being withdrawn,” adding the process should be better thought-out.
Labour’s shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said: “It’s damning that the Home Office isn’t doing this already, given Labour has been calling for the fast-tracking of cases—including for safe countries like Albania—for months and the UNHCR recommended it two years ago.
“Meanwhile, the asylum backlog has skyrocketed—up by 50 percent since Rishi Sunak promised to clear it.
“After 13 years of government, the Conservatives clearly have no idea how to fix the mess they have made of the asylum system.”
By the end of last year, the number of asylum seekers waiting for a decision had grown to almost 161,000—more than three times the number (51,228) in December 2019.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the vast numbers of immigrants had put an unprecedented level of pressure on the asylum system—including accommodation—prompting the Home Office to house asylum seekers in hotels.
The prime minister also set out plans to change the legal framework for immigration, including legislating to remove those who arrive illegally and ban them from reentry.
