Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help ensure that asylum cases are determined on the basis of need rather than the route by which people arrive to the UK.

The UK has a proud history of providing protection to those who need it, in accordance with our international obligations under the Refugee Convention and European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

However, we have been clear that people should claim asylum in the first safe country that they reach and should not seek to enter the UK illegally. They should not put their lives at risk by leaving those safe countries and making unnecessary and dangerous onward journeys to the UK.

Inadmissibility is a longstanding process designed to prevent secondary movements across Europe. If an individual has a connection to or has passed through a safe country before arriving in the UK, we can declare their claim as inadmissible to our asylum process, and we will seek to return them to a safe country. If we cannot return an inadmissible claimant to a safe county within a reasonable period of time, we will consider their claim in the UK.

For claims admitted for consideration under the UK asylum process, decision makers carefully consider the claimant’s protection needs by assessing all the evidence provided by them in light of published country information guidance. Decision makers receive extensive training on considering asylum claims and must follow published Home Office policy guidance.

Each case that is admitted to our asylum process, irrespective of how the individual arrived in the UK, is carefully considered on its own merits. Protection is normally granted where a claimant has a well-founded fear of persecution under the Refugee Convention or their circumstances engage our obligations under Article 3 (ECHR). Those who qualify are granted five years’ limited leave and have access to the labour market and welfare support.

Those found not to need protection are refused, and the decision can be subject to legal challenge where appropriate either via appeal to the independent court or through a judicial review, depending on the decision in question. Once their appeals rights are exhausted, they are required to leave the UK.