A group of people are brought in to Dover, Kent, from a Border Force vessel
TORY plans to clear some of the Home Office asylum backlog are “riddled with risk,” refugee rights campaigners have warned as new figures show a record 160,000 people in the queue.
Around 12,000 people from Afghanistan, Syria, Eritrea, Libya and Yemen — who have an asylum grant rate of over 95 per cent — will be sent a questionnaire to fill in instead of having a face-to-face interview.
The Home Office says this streamlined process will reduce some of its caseload backlog, following a pledge by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak earlier this year.
Britain’s proud asylum history, from sheltering the Kindertransport escaping Hitler to Basque children fleeing fascist Spain, required tireless campaigning against persistent opposition — and it’s up to all of us to do our part today, writes SABINA PRICE
A recent Immigration Summit heard from Lord Alf Dubs, who fled the Nazis to Britain as a child. JAYDEE SEAFORTH reports on his message that we need to increase public empathy with desperate people seeking asylum
