Asylum applications are piling up in Great Britain, and accommodating many refugees is becoming increasingly difficult. A new law aims to improve the situation. A decision will be made on the applications based on a short questionnaire. However, some of the refugees are unlikely to benefit from this.
Because of the large backlog of asylum applications, the British government wants to process applications from people from certain countries of origin in a fast-track procedure. The new procedure, which is to be based on a ten-page questionnaire and does not require a personal visit, affects around 12,000 people, the BBC reported. These are citizens of the states of Afghanistan, Yemen, Eritrea, Libya and Syria who submitted their application before July last year. 95 percent of applications from these countries were approved.
The government in London expects the step to relieve overcrowded refugee accommodation. The backlog of applications that have already been submitted is enormous, and the accommodations are not up to the demands. Many asylum seekers have to be accommodated in hotels. The number of people waiting for a decision on their asylum application rose to a provisional record of more than 160,000 in December, according to the Interior Ministry.
However, the procedure is unlikely to benefit many applicants in the long term. In the future, the British government wants to exclude people who come into the country without a valid entry permit - for example in small boats across the English Channel - from the right to asylum. Almost 47,000 people crossed the strait last year alone.
People who enter the country in this way are already to be deported to Rwanda without their application being checked and regardless of their origin. So far, however, this has failed at the European Court of Human Rights. London is therefore considering withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights. Organizations such as the UN refugee agency UNHCR criticize the British plans as a breach of international obligations.
