Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to require written asylum applications to be submitted in English.

12,000 asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Syria, Yemen, and Libya who lodged asylum claims before 28 June 2022 will be considered through a Streamlined Asylum Process. This will involve eligible claimants being sent a questionnaire asking them to provide all the necessary information so claims can be considered more quickly. This will speed up decisions for those in genuine need, ending the uncertainty over their future, and help us remove people with no right to be here.

It is standard practice for the Home Office to issue correspondence and questionnaires to asylum claimants in English. This is to avoid responses being received in other languages.

Asylum claims will continue to be considered on a case-by-case basis against published Immigration Rules, policy guidance and country information. These five nationalities had a grant rate of over 95% in the year-ending September 2022, therefore it is right to accelerate the processing of these claims where appropriate. An automatic grant of protection status for these countries is certainly not guaranteed – all individuals will be assessed on a case-by-case basis and an interview will follow the questionnaire if more information is needed.

All individuals will have already undergone a screening interview, including criminal checks and will have their biometrics, such as their fingerprints, taken before they can be considered for a grant of protection status.

If individuals do not reply to the questionnaire, and the Home Office is unable to trace them, their claim could be withdrawn.

We will respond to the correspondence from the Chartered Institute of Linguists and the Institute of Translation and Interpreting in due course.