The Public Accounts Committee’s report lays bare what organisations like Asylum Aid have long known through our daily work with people seeking protection: the UK’s asylum system is not only inefficient and costly, it is fundamentally failing the very people it is meant to protect. The findings confirm a system characterised by poor decision-making, chronic delays, and a lack of coherent strategy for reform.
These new measures will not deter people seeking safety from coming to the UK but will instead significantly harm the mental health and social integration of those recognised as needing protection in this country. These are men, women, children and families who have fled war, conflict, torture, trafficking, persecution and extreme cruelty.
This new Bill builds on some of the much-needed reforms to the asylum system that the government has made since taking office, including tackling the backlog of asylum cases. It repeals the Safety of Rwanda Act, as the Government committed to do in response to Asylum Aid’s legal challenge. It also revokes a significant amount of the Illegal Migration Act that aimed to strip those fleeing war, persecution and human rights abuses of their right to seek safety this country. However, Parliament should go further and repeal the whole IMA.
