Breaking news about a big change in immigration policy. Many of our asylum-seeker guests have faced hugely long waits – two years or more – both for their substantive interviews and then decisions about refugee status.
Following Home Office announcement, those who claimed asylum before 28 June 2022 and who come from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Libya, Syria or Yemen will have their cases expedited and positive decisions made more quickly – without the need for a substantive interview. Negative decisions won’t be made without an interview.
There are concerns, as ever, about how the new plan will work, including English language-only forms and stringent deadlines. But if it helps clear the appalling asylum backlog, it may be rolled out to other nationalities where there is already a high success rate.
We’re not sure when this will start or how quickly it will make a difference, or the implications for hosting – but we hope that the many people from Afghanistan, Syria and Eritrea who are hosted by you will benefit soon.
Refugees at Home Newsletter
ISSUE 53, February 2023
However, according to The Guardian newspaper people will be asked to fill in a written questionnaire in English within 20 days and to return it in time to keep their asylum claim alive. This is to replace an interview and to reduce the waiting list of about 160,000 asylum claims. However, it is totally unfair as there is no way the asylum seekers can get legal advice on how to complete the questionnaire within that timeframe.