Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the announcement by Pakistan's Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti on 3 October 2023 that Afghan asylum seekers must leave the country by the end of November 2023, if she will make it her policy to issue UK visas before that date to all Afghan citizens in Pakistan who are eligible to come to the UK and who are waiting for a decision from her Department under (a) the Afghan Citizen's Resettlement Scheme and (b) family reunion rules; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Supporting the resettlement of individuals eligible under the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) remains a priority for HMG, and we are issuing new visas to people from Afghanistan for settlement here.
We recognise the difficult situation that many individuals find themselves in. We continue to work, including with likeminded partners and countries neighbouring Afghanistan on resettlement issues and to support safe passages for eligible Afghans.
To date we have brought around 24,600 people affected by events in Afghanistan to safety. This includes those evacuated under Operation Pitting and those resettled and relocated under the ACRS and Afghans Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP). The ACRS is one of the most ambitious resettlement schemes in our countries history and provides those affected by events in Afghanistan with a safe and legal route to the UK.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many open family reunion applications her Department has from Afghan citizens who legally travelled to Pakistan for the purposes of accessing a UK visa processing centre.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Government’s refugee family reunion policy provides a safe and legal route to bring families together.
We prioritise all applications where the application has been made by an unaccompanied child under the age of 18. We will also prioritise applications where there is an evidenced urgent or compelling reason.
The UK government does not hold information regarding the legality of non-British nationals’ entry into another country, nor their immigration status in countries outside of the UK.
The most recent data can be found at Asylum and resettlement datasets - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)(opens in a new tab).
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 18 September 2023 to Question 198491 on Asylum: Applications, how long the training lasts for newly recruited decision makers; who provides the training for newly recruited decision makers; and what steps she is taking to (a) provide support to new decision makers and (b) monitor the (i) quality and (ii) consistency of decision making.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Asylum Operations provides staff with specialist training through a comprehensive programme of classroom-based learning and a mentoring framework as part of our plan for a highly skilled workforce. This is delivered by a dedicated team of senior grade trainers and higher-grade technical experts, thereby helping to maintain case-working expertise and improve decision maker capability.
Work has been undertaken to review and redesign the training of Asylum decision makers. The focus of the project is to ensure that the right training is given at the right time. The expectation is that by moving to this model it will help decision makers become more productive in a quicker timeframe as the training will be more focused on the type of casework that they are assigned and the tasks they will need to undertake at that time.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 18 September 2023 to Question 198491 on Asylum: Applications, how many legacy cases her Department plans to process in (a) October, (b) November and (c) December 2023.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
We have taken immediate action to speed up asylum processing whilst maintaining the integrity of the system. This includes simplifying guidance and streamlining processes. We have also introduced shorter, focussed interviews, making the interview process more efficient.
The asylum backlog of legacy cases had fallen by over 35,000 cases, between the end of November 2022 and the end of August 2023, and has continued to fall since the last publication of statistics.
Information on the legacy backlog is published online in the IMB_02 Tab of the data table regarding Statistics relating to the Illegal Migration Act - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). This data is provisional and has not been cleansed to remove duplicates.
In the year ending June 2023, there were 23,702 initial decisions made on asylum applications, 61% more than in the previous year. This is in part due to an increase in the number of asylum decision makers employed by the Home Office.
We are confident that with increased capacity and improved efficiency this will help deliver further significant output over the coming months.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 20 June 2023 to Question 188925 on Slavery: Victims, if she will publish her findings following consideration of the scope and process of any possible alternative assurance process; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
We are continuing to keep under consideration the process and scope of any assurance process in respect of negative conclusive grounds decisions in the National Referral Mechanism. There are currently no planned statements or publications in respect of this ongoing work.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to (a) finalise UK visas and (b) provide permission to travel to the UK for Afghan nationals instructed to travel to Pakistan under the Afghan Citizen's Resettlement Scheme; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Supporting the resettlement of individuals eligible under the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) remains a priority for HMG, and we are issuing new visas to people from Afghanistan for settlement here. This means they immediately have the right to live, work and study in the UK.
We recognise the difficult situation that many individuals find themselves in. We continue to work, including with likeminded partners and countries neighbouring Afghanistan on resettlement issues and to support safe passages for eligible Afghans.
To date we have brought around 24,600 people affected by events in Afghanistan to safety. This includes those evacuated under Operation Pitting and those resettled and relocated under the ACRS and Afghans Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP). The ACRS is one of the most ambitious resettlement schemes in our countries history and provides those affected by events in Afghanistan with a safe and legal route to the UK.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Home Office and Ministry of Justice news story entitled Government to build cases to prosecute rogue immigration lawyers published on 8 August 2023, whether any non-immigration lawyers are being monitored by her Department; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office ensures that legal practitioners raising immigration matters have the correct regulatory credentials. If evidence exists that obligations have been breached, we may refer legal practitioners to regulators or law enforcement where criminality is evident.
It would not be appropriate to comment further as this is operationally sensitive and would undermine the Home Office’s ability to tackle the threat if this information regarding the actions of a small number of legal practitioners was put into the public domain.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 12 September 2023 on Migrant Help: Standards, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of an increase in the headcount for Migrant Help on the service standards they provide; what rectification actions are still outstanding; what progress Migrant Help have made on improving standards to the level set out in their contract; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office continues to work with Migrant Help in line with their contract to ensure that they take all rectification actions to bring about improvements. Migrant Help have increased their headcount to respond to the significant increase in demand for their services which is due to increased volumes of those destitute asylum seekers requiring accommodation.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with her counterpart in Pakistan on immigration enforcement action against Afghan nationals who are in Pakistan awaiting final checks on UK visa applications; what steps she is taking to prevent Afghan nationals in this position being sent back to Afghanistan on the grounds that documentation allowing them to be in Pakistan has expired; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office is unable to comment on ongoing discussions taking place with Pakistan on this.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many unaccompanied children are being housed in arranged hotel accommodation as of September 2023; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Under Part 6 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, the Home Office has a legal obligation to support asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute.
The high number of UASC arrivals, particularly as a result of small boat crossings, has placed unprecedented pressure on the National Transfer Scheme. Out of necessity we accommodated UASC on an emergency and temporary basis in hotels while placements with local authorities have been vigorously pursued. The Home Office have put in place further funding throughout 2023-24 of £6,000 for every unaccompanied child moved from a UASC hotel to a local authority within five working days to encourage quicker transfers into local authority care.
We take the safety of those in our care seriously. We have robust safeguarding procedures in place to ensure all young people in emergency interim hotels are safe and supported as we seek urgent placements with a local authority.
All local authorities are under a mandatory duty to comply with the National Transfer Scheme and significant work is underway to support them in fulfilling their statutory duty to accommodate unaccompanied children nationwide.