Sunday, May 25, 2008

Speed up asylum processing rather than bang up claimants

Commenting on the Government’s plans to build new immigration detention centres, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said:

"Ministers should speed up processing rather than banging up claimants, and the obvious way is by setting up a Canadian-style independent agency to decide cases.

"At present, a fifth of asylum appeals are successful because politics hampers the decision-making.

"Another attempt to build a centre in Bicester that has already been mothballed once is unlikely to prove the magic bullet that this inhumane and ineffective policy needs."

1 comment:

Aberavon and Neath Liberal Democrats said...

[Later] Commenting on a drop in the number of failed asylum seekers deported, Chris Huhne said:

"These figures show the lamentably slow progress the Government is making in clearing the backlog of asylum applications, some of which have now been pending for years."

As to immigration from new EU accession countries, last week's official figures show a drop. Chris Huhne commented:

"These figures confirm that the pattern of EU migration is like a turnstile, as people come in and out to fill gaps in our work force.

"But there continues to be an overall lack of control of our borders because we longer know whether people who are given temporary visas then leave again, thanks to the abolition of exit controls under the Tories."

On the other hand, a record number of people have been granted British citizenship. Chris Huhne said:

"The rise in citizenship must go hand in hand with a real effort to integrate immigrants into our society, which sadly cannot be the case when ministers are cutting English courses."