Suspension of Refugee Travel Visas

Hansard Friday 7th February 2003

Immigration Control

The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. David Blunkett): The Government are fully committed to maintaining effective immigration control and ensuring that access to the asylum process is restricted to those who are in need of protection as demonstrated by the series of fundamental reforms to the immigration, asylum and nationality system over the past 12 months.

Intelligence has shown that an increasing number of people who have been accepted as refugees elsewhere in the world are coming to the United Kingdom and making asylum applications in false identities. This undermines the integrity of the asylum process, places an unacceptable burden on the system and diverts valuable resources from those in genuine need. This abuse of the system is made easier as under the provisions of the Council of Europe Agreement on the Abolition of Visas for Refugees, the holders of refugee travel documents issued by some 21 countries may travel to the United Kingdom without a visa. I have therefore decided to suspend the operation of that agreement. This will mean that from 00.01 hours on Tuesday 11 February all holders of refugee travel documents will require a visa before coming to the United Kingdom.

This measure will bring the holders of refugee documents issued by the 21 countries into line with those who hold refugee documents issued by all other countries. This change will not prevent refugees who are settled in other countries and who genuinely wish to visit the United Kingdom from doing so. They will simply be required to obtain a visa before coming here. What it will do is act as a deterrent to those whose sole purpose in coming to the United Kingdom is to abuse our asylum system.

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Postal Asylum Applications Abolished

The Minister for Citizenship and Immigration (Beverley Hughes): In July 2000 we announced that we would not be recording postal claims for asylum from persons living in any of the London Boroughs and that they would be required to attend for screening before their claim was recorded and processed. Postal applications have also not been accepted in other parts of the country in cases where alternative arrangements have been established. Postal claims have, however, continued to be made from some parts of the country: in 2001–02 they accounted for 7 per cent. of all asylum claims, and so far in 2002–03 they have accounted for 8.9 per cent.

As from 8 February anyone wishing to make an asylum claim will need to do so in person, and postal applications for asylum will no longer be accepted. We expect individuals to make their claim at a port of entry, where they will be screened and any request for support will be considered. Where a person in-country writes in by post their purported claim will not be recorded. They will instead be advised to apply in person at Croydon or Liverpool. In the very exceptional case where a person is genuinely unable to attend one of these sites, alternative arrangements will be made to ensure that person can be screened and their claim processed.

This change is part of our ongoing strategy to tighten up management of the asylum system.

Source for this page: Hansard Friday 7th February 2003

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