Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that all asylum applicants receive sensitive and fair hearings when interviews are resumed in remote form.

The Home Office remains committed to delivering a fair and humane asylum system that is sensitive to the needs of all asylum applicants, so that sufficient information can be obtained to facilitate fair and sustainable decisions on asylum claims.

The Home Office takes the wellbeing of asylum seekers extremely seriously and has already put in place a range of measures to support asylum applicants affected by the covid-19 outbreak.? In line with the Home Office’s commitment to protect the health and wellbeing of its staff and applicants as a top priority, Asylum Operations made the decision to cease face to face substantive asylum interviews with effect from Thursday 19th March 2020.

However,?it is crucial to our applicants that we restart processing their applications for protection as soon as it is safe to do so.? The Home Office has successfully used video technology to support remote interviewing for more than 2 years and has appropriate operating procedures that are designed to ensure participants are able to give the best account of their circumstances.

To keep people safe but allow the Home Office to gather the additional information needed to make a decision on their claim for protection, Asylum Operations have secured additional mobile digital and video interviewing kit that enables more applicants to be interviewed remotely. We remain committed to restarting substantive asylum interviews as soon we can establish a process that allows the participants - applicants, representatives, interpreters and interviewers - to do so safely.