Row over legal help for asylum seekers to overturn convictions
Watchdog that fights for migrants over their illegal entry will lead to even more arrivals, fear MPs
AN official Government body is helping asylum seekers quash their convictions for illegal entry to Britain, in a move MPs fear could “undermine deterrence” and lead to thousands more arrivals.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) is running an unprecedented publicity campaign encouraging hundreds of migrants to challenge criminal convictions related to their entry, such as fraud or using false passports. The commission has already helped more than 30 asylum seekers to overturn their convictions – something which has allowed many of them to receive refugee status and stay in the UK. It is considering a further 60 cases.
The disclosures come after a Sudanese man was granted refugee status in Britain, despite facing criminal charges for walking through the Channel Tunnel. Abdul Rahman Haroun is charged with obstructing a railway after his 31mile trek, which forced the closure of the tunnel for two hours, although prosecutors last week said they were considering dropping charges.
As well as advertising for asylumseeker cases, the commission has waived its normal rules which insist that people seeking its help must first attempt to appeal through the courts. It has instead fast-tracked dozens of asylum seeker cases, which now make up a large proportion of its workload. Despite massive demand from British citizens who say they are victims of injustice, almost a third of the people who the CCRC helped overturn their convictions last year were asylum seekers.
“This is Alice in Wonderland,” said Peter Bone, Conservative MP for Wellingborough. “If you do this, you will undermine deterrence and encourage more and more people to come in by illegal routes. It will certainly increase the flow of people in the hands of the people traffickers – for an official body to be doing this is fundamentally wrong.”
The CCRC’s action is strongly promoted by its chairman, Richard Foster, who also chairs the Refugee Council, which campaigns to “support and empower refugees” and “offer practical support to people who are seeking asylum”. The council has described the UK asylum system as “unfair and inhumane”. Mr Foster, a former Foreign Office diplomat and civil servant, said the prosecution of asylum seekers was a “worrying trend” and “not what one would expect from a ‘gold standard’ justice system”. He said there may be “hundreds” of such convictions and said he was “actively trying to seek out more cases”.
The commission says it has to act because many asylum seekers are being denied their rights under the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, also reflected in British immigration law. This states that asylum seekers are protected from prosecution for illegal entry if they come “directly from a territory where their life or freedom was threatened”, “present themselves without delay to the authorities” and “show good cause for their illegal entry or presence”.
However, the commission and courts have interpreted the provision generously, often helping asylum seekers who did not come to the UK directly from unsafe countries, but spent substantial time in other safe countries.
Among the cases the CCRC has referred back to the Appeal Court were those of Amir Ghavami and Saeideh Afshar, Iranian refugees convicted of entering Britain on fake documents. It emerged that the couple had first travelled from Iran to Thailand, where they spent two months, followed by three weeks in Tanzania, a week in Kenya and three weeks in Spain – all deemed safe countries – before entering the UK. The pair admitted they were free to claim asylum in Spain but decided against living there because they do not speak Spanish. Their convictions were quashed by the Appeal Court.
Another case taken up by the CCRC was that of Eyasu Mulugeta, an Ethiopian who entered Britain legally on a visitor’s visa using his own passport but then claimed asylum under a different name, pretending he had been smuggled into the country. He was jailed for 12 months for making false statements to gain refugee status. His conviction was upheld and he was recommended for deportation but he is still in the UK, 12 years after his arrival.
Between April 2011 and April 2015, the latest published figures, the CCRC received around 5,650 complaints from non-asylum seekers, of which it referred about 85 to the appeal courts, a rate of 1.5 per cent. Over the same period it received around 70 complaints from asylum seekers, of which it referred 32 to the appeal courts, a rate of 45 per cent. It is considering a further 60 asylum cases, including new cases since April 2015. Of the 36 cases the CCRC referred to the courts last year, 11, almost a third, were asylum-related.
Mr Bone said: “There appears to be an extraordinary discrimination between the treatment of asylum seekers and British applicants. The Government needs to look at this.”
A CCRC spokesman said that nearly all the asylum seeker convictions it referred to the courts had been quashed.
“It is clear that the Crown Prosecution Service and the courts are getting it wrong and solicitors are giving wrong advice.”
‘If you do this, you will undermine deterrence and encourage more people to come in by illegal routes’