Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to put in place extra levels of protection for people holding refugee status or subsidiary status in Ukraine fleeing that country to the UK.

The UK has a proud record of providing protection for people who need it, in accordance with our obligations under the Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights. However, we do not allow asylum claims from abroad, nor facilitate individuals to travel to the UK for the purposes of claiming asylum. Those who need international protection should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach, as this is the fastest route to safety.

Where an asylum claim is properly made in the UK and admitted to the UK asylum system, it will be given full and careful consideration, and we will grant protection where this is appropriate. We will not remove anyone to their country of origin or any other country where they would face persecution or serious harm. Due to the recent events, we have removed our country policy and information notes for Ukraine from gov.uk as they no longer reflect the current country situation.

We have, therefore, temporarily paused asylum decision making to ensure our decision makers are only considering claimants’ protection needs in the light of relevant and up-to-date country information. We are reviewing the country situation and will issue updated country policy and information notes shortly reflecting revised assessments of risk of persecution.