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UK: Refugee procedures "ineffectual"

01 July 1995

The so-called "accelerated procedures" for returning refugees to "safe" countries of transit, condemned consistently during the two years of their operation for the injustice and hardship they create for refugees, have been revealed as hugely wasteful and ineffectual by Amnesty International. The system of screening refugees for return to the third safe country has resulted in an extra tier of interviews, necessitating more staff, an increase in the use of detention and a whole parallel system of appeals. The system is known by immigration lawyers to be near breaking point (see Statewatch vol 5 no 3). Amnesty says that the Home Office is having to reconsider or rescind over 90% of its decisions in "third country" cases, and claims that the system could not be more protracted and wasteful of public funds if it was deliberately designed to be. The Home Office denied Amnesty's figures, costings and conclusions, saying that the Home Office unit dealing with "third country" cases cost less than £100,000 a year. This figure does not include the costs of detention or appeals.