Home Office "unfair on asylum-seekers"

Rights Campaigners Urge Reform of Asylum Process

The groups -- Justice, the Immigration Law Practioners' Association and the Asylum Rights Campaign -- say asylum procedures are unnecessarily lengthy and inefficient.

They complain that officials operate in a culture which concentrates on preventing refugee arrivals rather than on providing protection from persecution.

The immigration system operates on a "guilty until proven innocent" basis, says the report.

The result, say campaigners, is that initial decisions are made too hastily, forcing applicants to embark on a two-tier appeals process. The backlog of cases, many of which have been in the system for over four years, means officials are unable to deal with new cases quickly.

A spokeswoman for the Justice group, Anne Owers, said: "There must be a proper examination of the claim, but the present system, we've found, concentrates on small inconsistencies or stories where there may be a little bit of change that doen't really matter or else doesn't have documentary sources."

The groups argue that the system needs to be overhauled, so that fairer decisions are made in the first place, leading to fewer appeals.

Eighty per cent of asylum applicants are denied permission to stay when they first arrive in Britain.

Immigration Minister admits problems

The report was welcomed by Immigration Minister Mike O'Brien, who said the Government was looking at ways to make asylum procedures "fairer, faster and firmer." He agreed there were "a lot of problems" with current procedures.

"There is a need to be both providing protection for genuine asylum-seekers and to stop the abuse," said Mr O'Brien. "Getting the balance right is very important."

There are an estimated 70,000 unresolved asylum cases currently going through the system.

The minister said the Government was looking critically at all aspects of immigration and asylum law to ensure decisions were swift and fair. He stressed it was very difficult to distinguish between bogus and genuine refugees.