Asylum: Applications

(asked on 12th December 2023) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make it his policy to require that all asylum seekers must have a personal interview as part of the application process.


Answered by
Tom Pursglove Portrait
Tom Pursglove
Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
This question was answered on 19th December 2023

The criteria for when a substantive asylum interview can be omitted are contained in Paragraph 339NA of the Immigration Rules and include cases where we are able to take a positive decision on the basis of evidence available, or if the claimant is unfit or unable to be interviewed owing to enduring circumstances beyond their control. All asylum claimants are subject to a screening interview and mandatory security checks to confirm their identity and to link it to their biometric details for the purpose of immigration, security and criminality checks.  These checks are critical to the delivery of a safe and secure immigration system.  

The Home Office currently assesses it appropriate to generally omit personal interviews from nationals of Afghanistan, Eritrea, Libya, Syria and Yemen, as well as from Sudan, specifically in relation to claims made on or after 28th June 2022, where sufficient evidence is available to confirm nationality and there are no other factors that would mean a personal interview was required, for example security or criminality concerns.   Instead, an asylum questionnaire is provided to claimants to allow them to explain why they require protection status in the UK. Where further information is required after the questionnaire is returned, we will, where possible, conduct a targeted or shorter interview to obtain the necessary information from the claimant as quickly as possible.

Omitting personal interviews is not limited to the nationalities noted and can be done in-line with paragraph 339NA of the Immigration Rules on a case-by-case basis.

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