FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Albania has become a proxy in the political fight over the UK's rotten asylum system. But evidence shows that Albania is unsafe for many of its citizens.
A comprehensive new report from the Public Law Project (PLP) and the Migrant and Refugee Children Legal Unit (MiCLU) at Islington Law Centre details systemic failures within the legal framework of the UK asylum system.
Based on the experiences of asylum seekers and their legal representatives, it identifies five key failures, including problems with securing quality legal representation, unsafe conditions for disclosing traumatic experiences, poor Home Office decision-making, insufficient financial support, and policies that push people towards unsafe returns.
The PLP and MiCLU report emphasizes that successive governments have made significant political and legislative efforts to reduce the number of Albanian asylum applications.
Section 59 of the new Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act, for example, would make Albanian asylum claims generally inadmissible. With this in mind, the report focuses on the experiences of six Albanian asylum seekers in the UK, providing detailed case studies that illustrate the real-life impact of asylum policies.
"The Albanian community requires special attention at this time to ensure that their treatment is fair, lawful, non-discriminatory and in accordance with their human rights and dignity," the report states.
Lee Marsons, senior researcher at the PLP and author of the report, added that Albanians are being used as scapegoats by UK governments that ignore the reality of blood feuds, LGBTQ+ persecution and modern slavery in Albania.
"Sadly, Albania has become a proxy in the political fight over the UK's rotten asylum system. But the evidence shows that Albania is unsafe for many of its citizens," Marsons said.
After presenting case studies of 6 Albanian asylum seekers, the report then explores in detail 5 common, key failures that undermine the UK asylum system. They are summarised below:
1. Difficulty in accessing quality legal advice and representation: Because asylum legal advice and representation is a "legal aid desert", with a dwindling number of unstable providers, asylum seekers often have difficulty accessing publicly funded legal advice and representation when they need it.
2. Difficulty in making personal and traumatic disclosures: The asylum system requires people to make very personal and often traumatic disclosures about their private lives, which are often a source of great shame or fear. However, throughout the process, the Home Office does not provide the conditions or safe spaces to support individuals to share their experiences and needs.
3. Systemic weakness of the Home Office’s decision-making processes: Once applications are submitted, the problems continue. There are endemic delays in Home Office decision-making, with decisions taking at least many months and, in some cases, years. The longest delay detailed in this report was almost five years.
4. Inability to meet basic needs due to insufficient financial support: While their asylum claim is being examined or their appeal is being heard by a court, people can be provided with financial support from the Home Office to prevent poverty. Local authorities also have a duty to provide housing and support for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. The evidence in this report is that these safety nets are not working effectively. Adult asylum seekers are regularly unable to meet their essential needs due to the limited financial support available from the Home Office through so-called “asylum support” – currently £49.18 per week.
5. Encouraging returns to unsafe countries: The case studies illustrate the shortcomings in the current legal framework for returning people to countries where there are significant security concerns. In particular, section 94 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 requires the Home Office to establish, unless there are compelling reasons, that claims by nationals of certain countries are “manifestly unfounded”. / Adapt Pamphlet/
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