JRS UK News, March 2004

Asylum Rights:  What Next? 

The Asylum and Immigration Bill is presently working its way through Parliament.  At the moment it is in the House of Lords.  It was recently announced that in the face of criticism from within the legal profession, from the Law Lords, from other interested groups and from the public there will be some modification of the provision to reduce appeal rights to one level and to remove independent judicial oversight of asylum decisions.  We have yet to hear the details of the changes to this part of the Bill.

However, as the Bill goes through Parliament and attracts a lot of attention and interest and as asylum seekers still hit the headlines in our national and local media, there are many changes which are being brought into effect with little or no debate and with wide ranging effect. 

This month a little noticed statutory instrument (a piece of delegated legislation) was quietly tabled in Parliament.  Its purpose is to remove the right to legal representation at the Home Office interview from everyone other than minors and those who under the Mental Health Act are judged not to have the capacity to make decisions on their own behalf. 

Statutory instruments can only be overturned (not amended) and often only then by “negative resolution”.  So there is no debate to implement them—only if there is to be a vote against them, which means they have to be noticed in the parliamentary timetable. 

Often new Home Office policies and new laws are quietly introduced and have a huge impact on many people, without much or even any debate.   

Next month the new rules on legal aid and on National Health Service provision come into effect.  Already, however, we are hearing of their implementation.   

The NHS changes mean that asylum seekers who have reached the end of their cases and have not been granted the right to stay in the UK will no longer be entitled to anything other emergency health care.  All other health care will have to be paid for.  This is already affecting individuals.  We have heard of several people who are waiting for judicial reviews on their cases and who are being denied the local health care through their GP.  Some have ongoing health problems and one we know of is a client of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture.   

These people are not yet at the end of their cases and are being affected.  Many are only in the position of having to go for judicial review because of the culture of disbelief at the Home Office which leads to poor decision making or because of poor legal advice.   

Getting good legal advice is going to prove more difficult in future.  The legal aid cuts come into effect in April, but are already being implemented in many cases.  Additionally many immigration legal practitioners are leaving the profession due to increased bureaucracy and decreased funding.  The Legal Services Commission recently noted at a public meeting that out of the previous 500 legal aid contract holders for immigration matters in London there are now only 252 left in practice.  Even the good practitioners will no longer be able to offer as good a service as previously as they will no longer have the funds available to do all the work needed and to make all the translations necessary and get all the expert evidence required.   

Things continue to worsen.  The Home Secretary has recently announced that the UK is “the first country in Europe to negotiate a returns agreement with Iraq” and we have had recent announcements that Dungavel Detention Centre will be expanded and that the new detention centre at Colnbrook, near Heathrow, will be opened in August this year.   

All of this combines to create a legal framework in which it becomes increasingly difficult to succeed in an asylum application and to secure the safety of individuals at risk.  It also contributes to a sense within refugee agencies and community organisations of being beseiged.  There is a constant battle to keep up with all the changes in the procedure and to the rights asylum seekers have.   

What you can do

Keep informed!  Consult the JRS website (www.jrsuk.net) and other websites and keep up to date with  new developments so that you can help us to keep the government accountable for the impact new measures have on individual’s lives.  Ideas of campaigning activities can be got from JRS.  In the meantime please use the postcard on destitution of asylum seekers which is enclosed with this newsletter or pass it on to someone else.

Inform others!  Help us to get the message out:  share the information you get with your family, friends, colleagues and parishes.

Louise Zanre 

Visiting a detainee 

When I started my job at Jesuit Refugee Service-UK, I was anxious about the moment I would have to actually go and visit a refugee or asylum seeker in a detention centre. Although I suspected it was going to be something really hard to do, the difficulty was not where I expected it to be. It is hard to go and meet people deprived of their liberty. And selfishly, I thought it would be hard for me to see the pain, frustration, and anger of detainees.  Indeed, it not an easy thing. 

But I forgot something very important; it is harder for the detainees than it is for me.  

“It’s worse than being in prison”, said one detainee I visited. “At least when you are in prison you can reasonably know for how long you are there and why.”  

I also now realise that detention is another world. A world apart, where the detainee is treated as being guilty, until proven innocent. Guilty of wanting to profit from a system and absolutely not willing to contribute to it.  

As an individual I am learning a lot from people I visit. I realise how lucky I am to be literally “free”, to have a place to live, a place to work, to have family and friends, to have Rights and be able to chose a competent person to represent me, if those Rights are challenged. When you are detained, you lose access to most of these things we all take for granted. 

Now when I visit someone in a detention centre, I keep all that in mind and try to the best of my ability to give support, hope, courage and love.  As a friend, for the rest of his journey, wherever it may end.

Shana Mongwanga