Driving forward asylum reform: Further measures to cut abuse

Reference: 036/2003 - Date: 7 Feb 2003 10:58

The Government plans to add seven more countries to the list of places from which asylum applications will be presumed to be ‘clearly unfounded’, Home Secretary David Blunkett announced today.

People appealing against an asylum refusal from one of these "safe countries" will not be allowed to appeal in the UK.

In addition, the Home Office is to -

• stop accepting asylum applications in the UK by post;
• require visas from those travelling to the UK from certain European countries on refugee travel documents, to prevent people claiming asylum in the UK when they already have refugee status elsewhere;
• begin a consultation process on tightening up the issuing of travel documents (Certificates of Identity) to those with Exceptional Leave to Remain (ELR) in the UK, so that holders of these documents do not simply use them to return home.

Speaking on the first anniversary of the publication of the Government’s immigration and asylum white paper, ‘Secure Borders, Safe Haven’, Mr Blunkett said:

Safe countries

Seven countries will be added to the list of safe countries. These are Albania, Bulgaria, Jamaica, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania and Serbia + Montenegro (previously the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia). Asylum applicants from these countries will have to rebut the presumption that their asylum or human rights claim is clearly unfounded. If they cannot rebut this presumption they will have no right of appeal in the UK against a refusal of their claim.

Mr Blunkett said:

Postal Applications

The changes to the rules on postal applications will take effect from Saturday. From then, asylum applications will only be accepted in person. In addition, under measures in the NIA Act 2002, to be eligible for support, individuals will have to demonstrate they have claimed asylum at the earliest possible opportunity, and give a credible account of their circumstances and how they got to the UK.

Mr Blunkett said:

Tighter Immigration Control

From 00.01 on Tuesday 11 February the Government will suspend the operation of the 1959 Council of Europe Agreement on the Abolition of Visas for Refugees. All holders of refugee travel documents will require a visa before coming to the United Kingdom.

Mr Blunkett said:

On 10 February new measures from the NIA Act will come into force. Under its provisions it will be an offence for a person to arrange or facilitate the arrival into the UK of someone for the purposes of prostitution.

The offence will now carry a heavy maximum penalty of 14 years which is comparable to drug trafficking offences. This will send a clear signal to the organised criminals on how seriously the government views this crime.

Mr Blunkett said:

NOTES TO EDITORS:

1. The White Paper – Secure Borders Safe Haven – was published on 7 February 2002 (Home Office press notice 038/02).
2. The Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act received Royal Assent on 7 November 2002 (Home Office press notice 294/2002).
3. The previous list of safe countries from where asylum claims will be presumed to be unfounded was announced on 7 October (PN 267/2002). The ten countries are Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.
4. A draft order including the new countries will be produced next week and will be debated in Parliament.
5. The NIA Bill was published on 12 April 2002 (Home Office press notice 093/02). Subsequent Home Office announcements on the Bill are contained in the following Home Office press notices: 093/02 (12 April 2002), 103/02 (24 April 2002), 144/02 (30 May 2002), 152/2002 (11 June 2002), 153/2002 (11 June 2002), 263/02 (4 July 2002), 188/02 (30 September 2002), 267/02 (7 October 2002). Key press notices relating to accommodation centres are 127/02 (14 May 2002), statement 029/02 (2 August 2002) and 290/02 (5 November 2002).
6. Other provisions from the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act coming into force on February 10 are: a new offence of being in possession of an immigration stamp; provisions which put beyond doubt the powers of Immigration Officers to enter business premises to undertake arrests; and the ability to revoke indefinite leave to enter.

ANNEX A

SECURE BORDERS, SAFE HAVEN - CONTINUING REFORM

ONE YEAR ON FROM THE IMMIGRATION AND ASYLUM WHITE PAPER

The Government has made considerable progress on proposals set out in the immigration and asylum White Paper, Secure Borders, Safe Haven, since it was published a year ago on 7 February 2002.

Asylum Policy:

• Induction Centres -
The Dover induction centre opened in January 2002 and has been running successfully since then. The Government is planning to roll-out more induction centres, both around the London area and in the regions later this year.

Reporting Centres - There are 4 Reporting Centres in London and 1 each at Gatwick Airport, Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester. Sandford House, Birmingham will open by the end of March 2003. Festival Court, Glasgow and a new Reporting Centre in Croydon will open by the end of Spring 2003.

Accommodation Centres - Planning notifications have been submitted on 2 sites for Accommodation Centres. The planning inquiry is underway on the first of those; we are continuing to examine other suitable sites and models to produce around 3000 places. All measures necessary to establish and operate accommodation centres have been agreed by Parliament.

Removal Centres - The serious fire and disturbance at Yarl's Wood Removal Centre on 14 February last year was a major setback to the plans and timetable to increase the number of detention spaces. Part of Yarl’s Wood will be reopened this Spring. We remain committed to expanding the removal centre estate to 4,000 spaces, drawing on the lessons learned from the Yarl's Wood incident and continuing to utilise the spaces we currently have in the existing estate.

• The government introduced non-suspensive appeals on 7 November. This is the provision to certify certain asylum and human rights claims as clearly unfounded. The presumption is that claims from applicants from 10 EU Accession State countries are clearly unfounded.

• The Lord Chancellors Department is currently consulting on draft Procedure Rules which will stop people dragging out the appeals process and bring into effect a closure date to prevent multiple adjournments, reduced time limits for appealing and other robust measures to curtail abuse;
• Establishing a formal quota resettlement programme from April 2003. We will be working with UNHCR to resettle 500 refugees in the first year, building up as we cut abuse of the asylum system in the UK.

Border Controls:

• Border controls are now in process of being extended across the Channel. For the first time there will be joint immigration controls along the French coast as needed;
• We are currently loaning the French authorities 2 passive millimetric wave imagers and 2 heartbeat detectors and the authorities in Calais now have the capability of screening 100% of freight traffic embarking for the UK. This will be extended to Dunkirk and Cherbourg by the end of May;
• We currently have Airline Liaison Officers at 21 locations that have been identified as important ports of origin or transit for improperly documented passengers travelling to the United Kingdom and work is underway to expand this network to further ports. During 2001, 22,000 passengers were prevented from travelling to the UK and this figure rose to 30,000 in 2002;
• Introduction of EURODAC, a central computerised database located in Luxembourg that will hold the fingerprints of asylum applicants in Member States and some categories of illegal entrants. Comprehensive checks and quick responses from EURODAC will result in a greater proportion of UK applicants being identified and returned to other EU states under the provisions of the Dublin Convention;
• Developing greater use of biometrics in the immigration field;
• Visa regimes have been introduced on countries that are abusing the system.

Citizenship & Nationality:

• An advisory group began in September. This group, chaired by Bernard Crick will advise the Home Secretary on the contents of the new citizenship courses and ceremony and test;
• The group’s first interim report was published on 31 January 2003;
• The Home Office continues to work with representatives of the local authorities to put in place procedure for the ceremonies. Ceremonies are expected to be trialed before the end of this year.

Marriage:

• Work on this continues, shortly we will be;

• increasing the probationary period on marriage to two years;

• removing the probationary period for those seeking entry clearance from abroad on the basis of a marriage/relationship which has existed for 4 years (rather than the 5 years previously proposed) and where the couple have been living together abroad;

• removing the "legally unable to marry" requirement for unmarried partners;

• introducing a provision prohibiting entry clearance as a fiancé(e) to those under 16 years of age;

We are also in the process of:

• creating specialised marriage casework groups to consider all cases of suspicious marriages and to build up intelligence on the organisers of "sham" marriages;

• looking at further measures we can introduce to enforce the

People Trafficking, Illegal Entry and Illegal Working:

All new asylum seekers are being issued with an Application Registration Card, with their photo and a fingerprint on it. When asylum seekers claim support, they are required to present the card when turning up to get their entitlements;

• All asylum seekers are now required to report regularly to the authorities. Steps have been taken within the new Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act to ensure that terrorists or other criminals cannot hide behind their refugee status. Refugees and asylum seekers can now be deported if they commit serious crimes;

• Success and growth of Reflex - a multi agency taskforce set up two years ago to co-ordinate law enforcement response to trafficking and smuggling of people, we now have a dedicated Immigration Crime Team (made up of police & immigration officers) to investigate traffickers, supported through Reflex funding;
• A senior level Steering Group chaired by Beverley Hughes has been established to bring together business and employee representatives to tackle illegal working.

Working in the UK:

• Under the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme, particularly talented individuals can come to the UK to look for work. A one-year pilot scheme which started in January 2002 has now been extended indefinitely;
• To date, over 1,000 people have successfully applied under the scheme. To improve the scheme’s effectiveness even further, the criteria for awarding points in certain categories has been revised, including updating the earnings category to better reflect income differences between countries;

• The Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme has been expanded, the quota of people that can apply in 2003 has increased from 20,200 to 25,000, and the scheme will be extended to operate the scheme all year round;
• The development of two new schemes to bring in temporary workers for the hotel/catering and food processing sectors were announced on 7 October 2002;
• The Work Permit system has been streamlined, and the number of permits issued increased - this year we expect to process around 175,000 work permits, up from 45,000 in 1996;
• We are consulting on bringing in more temporary foreign workers by expanding the Working Holidaymakers Scheme;
• Introduced the Innovators Scheme to encourage entrepreneurs to come here to set up businesses that will create jobs for the resident labour force;
• Introduced measures to enable graduated foreign students, student nurses, postgraduate doctors and dentists, with skills we need, to switch into work permit employment without first going home.

Published: 7 Feb 2003

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