Significant failings in the UK’s asylum system have been highlighted by the UN’s refugee agency, including torture victims being detained and laws not being “complied with”.
In a scathing report, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees noted “numerous risks to the welfare of asylum-seekers” after its investigation between 2021 and 2022.
It warned that officials were being forced to do “too much, too quickly, and with inadequate training”.
However, the Home Office said “significant improvements” have been made since the audit took place.
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The report warned the system they saw could lead to “well-founded” litigation if people were sent to Rwanda.
It said: “The current registration and screening systems expect staff to do too much, too quickly, and with inadequate training, facilities, guidance and oversight. As a result, much of their hard work is wasted, and the system frequently fails to achieve its goals”.
The audit said the agency “observed or was told about numerous risks to the welfare of asylum-seekers, including instances of trafficking and vulnerability being overlooked and teenage children and victims of torture and trafficking being detained”.
“Registration and screening records were often incomplete, inaccurate, or unreliable, and laws and published policies were not complied with.”
Interpreters were left to deal with “central aspects” of the screening interviews.
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There was also no way for the quality of the work done to be checked, nor a standardised system across the board.
“For all of these reasons, there is a real risk that decisions based on information collected at screening will be flawed,” the report said.
The UN body said plans to make asylum claims “inadmissible” if the applicant came through a safe third country mean screening processes need to be reliable and fair.
If the same system they saw was used, it “will lead to errors, causing distress to individuals, delays, and well-founded litigation” when people get removed from the UK.
Vicky Tennant, UNHCR representative to the United Kingdom, said: “Fair and efficient asylum systems help ensure that refugees are able to access the protection they need and to start rebuilding their lives.
“Equally important, they help maintain public confidence by allowing governments to pursue arrangements for the return of people who are found not to have international protection needs.
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“Flawed and inefficient screening procedures are currently undermining the UK’s asylum capacity – placing vulnerable people at risk and adding to the pressure on public resources.”
Some 28 recommendations for reform of the system to make it fairer, more reliable and efficient were put forward.
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A Home Office spokesman said: “This report is based on an audit that took place in 2021 and early 2022. Since then, significant improvements have been made to the processing of small boats arrivals.
“Tug Haven [processing centre] is no longer in use and specialist facilities have been made available to accommodate young people, including unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
“Our staff are working relentlessly to safely register and screen unprecedented numbers of migrants arriving in the UK illegally.
“We are pleased that their professionalism was praised and thank the UNHCR for their report.”
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: “The UNHCR report exposes a host of failures in Home Office initial asylum processing that are holding up the system and contributing to the damaging delays. Yet Conservative ministers have still rejected policies such as fast-track triage for clearly unfounded cases which Labour has demanded for months.
“The home secretary needs to stop posturing and start fixing the asylum system she and her party have broken. Labour has set out plans for a cross-border police unit, fast-tracking to clear the backlog and a proper deal with France on safe returns.”
