This is a short review of what we mean when we say ‘asylum seeker’ in the context of the UK and how the Nationality and Borders Bill will negatively affect asylum seekers if passed.
An asylum seeker is a person who is seeking refuge in a different country to escape potential persecution or a human rights violation in their home country. They differ from refugees, as asylum seekers are still waiting on a response to their claim to stay in the UK. This essentially means that an asylum seeker, in the context of the UK, does not have the same rights as you and I, or as a refugee.
There are many reasons why an asylum seeker may make the difficult decision to leave their country and seek refuge elsewhere. Making this life-changing decision and embarking on a perilous journey, often having to leave loved ones behind, shows that all asylum seekers share one thing in common: they are all desperate. Their situations at home are no longer tolerable. They could be fleeing from war, extreme poverty or are suffering from the consequences of natural disasters. The illegality of their sexuality or gender orientation can also push many into seeking a more accepting home.
Despite the perils that asylum seekers face at home, there is a strict eligibility criterion to meet for an asylum claim to be successful. In the UK, an asylum claim will only be considered due to the threat of persecution in an asylum seeker’s country without any sufficient protection available there. A claim may also not be considered if the asylum seeker is from an EU country or has travelled through a third country in which they would be safe in. It is clear to see that from making a potentially life-threatening journey to meeting a stringent eligibility criterion, asylum seekers do not have it easy. However, the difficulties do not end there.
After an asylum seeker has made an application, they will have two sets of interviews before a decision is finally reached, usually within 6 months. During this time, asylum seekers are not entitled to work and therefore, most are forced to rely on state support. Furthermore, around 67% of asylum seekers have their first asylum application refused.
This topic is not all doom and gloom, however, as there have been multiple heart-warming success stories. Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since 2011 and so 15-year-old Ishmael made the difficult decision to attempt to reach the UK illegally. He travelled through multiple countries “using all different types of transportation like trains, buses, and sometimes walking.”[1] After many defeats, Ishmael was eventually accepted into the UK under legislation known as the Dubs amendment, which allowed 3,000 children to seek asylum in the UK. Ishmael now enjoys studying at Birkbeck, University of London.
However, new legislative attempts seek to further disadvantage asylum seekers.
Asylum seekers under the recently proposed Nationality and Borders Bill will have no right to asylum in the UK when arriving using ‘unofficial’ routes. The proposed Bill is termed the ‘Anti-Refugee Bill’ by those opposing it as its contents pose uncompassionate and inhumane provisions regarding asylum seekers. This blog will refer to the Nationality and Borders Bill as the Anti-Refugee Bill throughout the rest of this article.
The Anti-Refugee Bill, which was proposed in March 2021, effectively de-legitimises the claims of desperate people who cannot or do not apply for asylum because of the extensive process of UK asylum approval but enter the country by boat or even a dingy. In a blog written by the London School of Economics, more than 25, 700 asylum seekers have entered into the UK by a dangerous boat ride of which more than 300 people have died in the last 20 years. You can read more about this here:
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2021/12/06/bodies-at-borders-why-it-is-vital-to-humanise-migrants/
The attempts will be for nothing when these asylum seekers are detained in offshore detention centre’s because they are in the UK ‘illegally’ or a worse fate, deportation. Both avenues have been proposed in the Anti-Refugee Bill and the Bill is currently in its 3rd reading stage in the House of Lords. This is because the Bill has been purported as a Bill that makes provision for victims of slavery and human trafficking, among other things. However, the Bill is cruel and does not seek to make provisions but instead causes a hostile route of asylum-seeking as there are other ways to restrict human trafficking without punishing those not being exploited by criminal syndicates. These asylum seekers can be exploited even if they have applied and have been granted asylum ‘legitimately’.
Asylum seekers desperate enough to risk death fleeing from their country on a dingy should not be sent back, a Bill will not deter these seekers as they are already desperate enough not to stay in their own country. Enforcing systems of detention or deportation will be a waste of administrative efforts and government expense. The Bill breaches international conventions such as Articles 2, 3 and 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights, Articles 31 and 33 of the UN refugee convention, the 1951 Refugee Convention and has been condemned by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The Bill proposes that Asylum Seekers who arrive in the UK through illegitimate routes (such as being transported on a dingy boat or by staying in the country using a short-term visa that does not authorise a long stay) can be prosecuted and expelled from seeking an application for asylum in the UK, this is exclusionary to those who have not been educated about the repercussions of their actions. This Bill will only bring less empathy and is a ferocious attempt at protecting the British public from non-existent threats.
To conclude, we urge the UK government to reconsider continuously approving the Nationality and Borders Bill as it only ignores and punishes the struggle that desperate asylum seekers go through to find a safe haven for themselves and their families.
By Melissa Crawford and Natasha Chapman
[1] From Syria to UK: A young refugee’s unique story (aa.com.tr)