ASYLUM SEEKERS POLICY

ASYLUM SEEKERS POLICY

ASYLUM SEEKERS POLICY

Introduction

In the run up to the general election, asylum is one time afresh in the headlines. The refugee assembly reports that asylum is the third most significant issue in voters' minds. Despite its significance as an issue, dependable data about asylum is tough to arrive by. Media reports are sensationalist, often using a language that is derogatory or just simple incorrect. For demonstration, the period 'illegal asylum seeker' is often used.(Dennis, 2009) Yet as a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees, any individual has the right to make an asylum assertion, and they have a lawful right to stay while they make their claim. Thus, no asylum seeker is illicit while producing a claim. This paper will try to address some of these misconceptions by analysing asylum seekers in the UK, and in specific the relationship of asylum seekers to benefits and the welfare state. The seen sapping of the welfare state by asylum seekers is one of the issues the press highlights in its treatment of asylum. (Welch, 2005)

 

Asylum Seeker

An asylum seeker, simply put, is someone asserting the status of asylum. The 1951 UN treaty on refugees states (ibid) that an asylum seeker must only have a reasonable possibility of persecution in his or her homeland of source in alignment to be conceded asylum. Asylum seekers may arrive from any location in the world. For the last two years the bulk of the asylum seekers approaching to the UK have been from Afghanistan and Iraq (RC: 2004:5): but the 1951 conference states that submission from all countries must be considered. What we have witnessed over the last 10 years in the UK is the putting in location of a entire series of restrictions against the spirit, if not the genuine wording, of the 1951 convention.(Dennis, 2009)

For instance, while the conference demands that applications from all countries be considered, the government has set up a 'safe list' of countries from which applications for asylum will not be considered. Furthermore, as Craze notes  (2002:4): “since the 1950's, Europe has witnessed a closing of its borders. In Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in Morocco, an enormous electrified barrier has been erected to trial to avert immigrants from crossing into Fortress Europe and naval ships now patrol the gulf of Gibraltar on the gaze out for immigrants.” When understanding the way asylum works in the UK, it is significant to situate it in terms of the political shifts that have appeared Europe-wide. Such shifts have made asylum applications increasingly tough, and have demonised and marginalized persons who have a lawful basis to make their claim.

Asylum Seekers arrive to the UK

Asylum figures are dogged by controversy and warmed debate. Yet, the latest facts and numbers from the UNHCR (UNHCR: 2005) seems to suggest an opposite state of affairs to that suggested by the tabloid press. Asylum applications around the world have fallen sharply for the third year in a strip, and are now at their lowest grade for ...