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29 July 2020 / Rona Epstein , Dr Peter William Walsh
Issue: 7897 / Categories: Opinion , Immigration & asylum
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Immigration: desperate measures

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Are asylum seekers getting good legal advice, ask Rona Epstein & Peter William Walsh

In brief

  • The United Nations Refugee Convention.
  • Section 31 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999.
  • Section 2 of the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants) Act 2004.
  • Claiming asylum: the ‘culture of disbelief’.

The UK has been a signatory of the Refugee Convention since 1954, although the Convention was only incorporated into domestic law 45 years later, under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, s 31.

During the decade 2010 to 2019, the number of people seeking asylum in the UK almost doubled, from around 23,000 in 2010 to around 45,000 in 2019, a ten-year high.

Many applicants wait years for their case to be concluded. For a case to be considered ‘concluded’ in Home Office statistics, it must have resulted in a grant of protection or other leave, the removal of the asylum applicant(s) from the UK, or the withdrawal of the application. Of all applications received in the financial

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