Asylum-seekers not illegal
01 January 1991
Asylum-seekers not illegal
artdoc June=1992
The Court of Appeal has ruled that asylum-seekers who leave their
country on false documents are not illegal entrants, as long as
they do not use the documents to deceive immigration officers
when they arrive in Britain. On 14 April it quashed the
convictions of two men who had helped refugees to come to Britain
by giving them false documents to enable them to get on flights
from Kenya and Sri Lanka. The men had been charged with
`facilitating illegal entry'. The court rejected the Crown's
argument that asylum-seekers arriving with false documents were
automatically illegal entrants, acknowledging that most people
fleeing their own country cannot obtain genuine documents.
Independent 15.4.92.
Statewatch, vol 2, no 3, May-June 1992