Home Office ‘failing to respect rights of people seeking safety’

HOME OFFICE failings are having a devastating effect on people seeking safety in Britain, a new report claims.

Refugee Action said its research indicated asylum seekers face a “complex web of hostility and mistrust”.

The charity’s assessment, based on 40 interviews with asylum seekers, flagged up long delays in determining applications, pointing to figures showing that an initial decision was still pending after at least six months in 14,306 cases at the end of last year.

The chief executive of Refugee Action, Stephen Hale, said: “Britain’s asylum system often does immense damage to people who come to this country to claim protection.

“Refugees are being forced to wait years for a decision on their asylum claim.

“Our research shows the huge stress and anxiety this is causing, as people struggle to provide for their families and survive on little over £5 a day.

“Banned from work or study, they feel hopeless, isolated and excluded.

“The Home Office is systematically failing to respect the rights of vulnerable people.”

One female human trafficking victim has been waiting a year and a half for a decision.

She said: “I feel like my life has been rotating, I don’t move forward. It’s the same thing: I’m always a slave to someone.”

Meanwhile, Labour said it will close down two controversial immigration detention centres in an end to Theresa May’s “hostile environment” policy for illegal immigrants.

Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott said an incoming Labour government would shut Yarl’s Wood in Bedford and Brook House near Gatwick Airport.

It would also ban private contractors from taking on future contracts to run immigration detention centres.