Resources

Resources

Statement on the UK’s suspension of asylum decisions for Syrians 

Asylum Aid is extremely concerned that the UK government has decided to suspend decision making in Syrian asylum cases. The government is in no position to assume the safety of individuals in such a volatile and developing situation. Asylum Aid has supported survivors who were tortured by sectarian militias and who would have feared both Bashar al-Assad and sectarian militias, such as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

Read more

Press release: Home Office to apologise and compensate Asylum Aid’s client for four years delay

Asylum Aid’s client (referred to as EG), a 52-year-old man from Cote D’Ivoire seeking protection in the UK, will receive an apology and compensation from the Home Office for waiting four years and two months for a decision on his asylum claim. The client’s win comes on the back of Asylum Aid’s fight against one of the biggest problems in the UK asylum system – delays in decision making on asylum claims.
Read more

Asylum Aid’s statement on the increase in legal aid funding

We are delighted that the government has announced an increase in legal aid rates for immigration, which were last revised three decades ago. The UK’s immigration and asylum systems are extremely complex and challenging to go through. Free legal advice is fundamental for people seeking protection to navigate those systems. But since 1996, there’s been no increase in funding. Those supporting people seeking protection have been calling for an increase in legal aid rates for years so that legal aid is sustainable, and providers can afford to continue this vital work. We welcome the government’s decision to act.
Read more

Understanding Criminalisation - Why Some Young People Seeking Asylum Come into Contact with the Criminal Justice System

This research found that young people seeking asylum in the UK are often very particularly vulnerable due to their life experiences before, during, and after migration. Systems of accommodation and support in the UK, provided by local authorities and the Home Office, increase this vulnerability. Behaviours that arise from this increased vulnerability (such as offending behaviours) are surveilled and disciplined through contact with the police.
Read more

Remote immigration and asylum advice: what we know and what we need to know

The current state of immigration and asylum advice is dire – 63% of the population in England and Wales do not have access to an immigration and asylum legal aid provider. Even those that do live near one of the remaining providers face significant barriers in accessing legally aided advice, due to saturated provider capacity precipitated by years of unsustainable legal aid fees, heavy administrative burdens and burnt-out practitioners. The provision of immigration and asylum advice in England and Wales is ‘not even adequate for first-time adult asylum applications, with a deficit of at least 6,000 for asylum applications and appeals’. 
Read more

Annual report 2023

Alison Pickup
As the second year of working towards our 2022-2024 strategic priorities, 2023 was an exciting year of growth for Asylum Aid. But we also faced challenges from many directions: a government hostile both to our clients and to our work; a crisis in the availability of legal aid representation for people seeking asylum, as a result of years of underfunding and the declining sector; a constant cycle of new and complex legislation that seeks to restrict the right to asylum; and a failing system of accommodation and support for those prohibited from working that leaves many in appalling living conditions and surviving on barely adequate subsistence. Against this context, we are delighted to share this report, which showcases the real progress that Asylum Aid has made over the last year. We are now in a position to help more people get the protection they need; we have increased our partnerships with others in the sector, improving the advice that those fleeing persecution can get elsewhere; and we have demonstrated leadership and courage in taking forward legal challenges to unfair, unsafe and unworkable policies.
Read more

Statement on far-right violence and attacks on asylum hotels

We are horrified and extremely concerned about the far-right racist attacks on asylum hotels and violence against people seeking asylum, refugees, migrants, and minority communities, particularly Muslims.   These disturbing images and threats of more organised attacks are taking a huge toll on the mental health of the people we work with – those who have survived some of the worst forms of human cruelty and have arrived in the UK in hope of finding protection.
Read more

Press release on the flights to Rwanda being cancelled

At a hearing in the High Court this morning, the Home Secretary confirmed that no flights to Rwanda are currently scheduled or are intended to be scheduled. Surprisingly, despite what the Prime Minister said at the weekend, her lawyers were not yet able to confirm that the Rwanda policy is “dead and buried”. Consequently, it has not yet been withdrawn. As a result, Asylum Aid’s legal challenge to that policy remains live, while the new Home Secretary undertakes a review. The Home Secretary should now urgently confirm that there will be no flights ever, withdraw the policy and all Rwanda notices of intent. She should also start the process of repealing the Safety of Rwanda Act, which is an affront to the rule of law.
Read more

Press release: Asylum Aid files judicial review claim challenging the Home Office’s Rwanda policy.

Asylum Aid has filed a claim in the High Court challenging the Home Office’s ‘Safety of Rwanda’ guidance (Policy). The charity argues that the Home Office’s Policy unlawfully instructs decision makers to ignore compelling evidence put forward by individuals showing that they would be at individual risk of being sent from Rwanda to another country where they face a risk of persecution, torture or even death. The Policy, Asylum Aid believes, is unlawful and misinterprets the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act 2024, which was given Royal Assent on 25 April.
Read more