The Home Office has denied taking "arbitrary" decisions on asylum cases in order to meet deportation targets, but an asylum caseworker says staff have to work so fast that the results are a "lottery" - one that could result in people being sent home to their deaths. He contacted the BBC because he wants the public to know how the system operates. As he would lose his job if identified, we have called him "Alex".
Every day Alex reads the case files of people who have fled armed conflict. People who have been persecuted because of their politics, race, religion or sexuality. People who have experienced torture and sexual violence.
It's his job to decide whether these people, all asylum seekers, should be allowed to stay in the UK or be deported.
And yet, when he walks into work, he is greeted by a scene that wouldn't look out of place at a call centre selling double glazing. A leader board hangs on the wall displaying who is hitting their targets and who isn't, and performance managers pace the floor asking for updates on progress as often as once an hour.
Staff who don't meet their targets risk losing their jobs.
"There is an obsession among management with unachievable 'stats' - human beings with complex lives are reduced just to numbers," says Alex who has been a decision-maker for the Home Office for almost a year.
"These are people waiting for a decision to be made on their lives - it is probably one of the biggest things they will ever have to go through.
"Given what we are dealing with, this is not the environment for pushy managers who try to drive results through fear and intimidation."
Alex is one of 140 decision-makers based in an office in Bootle, just outside Liverpool. Most were recruited last year to clear a backlog of 10,000 of asylum cases within 12 months - a project known as Next Generation Casework.
How are decisions made?
- Decision-makers must take into account the evidence submitted by asylum applicants, the political and human rights situation in the country of origin, and previous decisions about asylum taken by UK courts
- Decisions often depend on whether the decision-maker finds the applicant's account to be believable - if it contains inaccurate or inconsistent information, for example, this will be damaging
- The claim may also be harmed if the applicant delayed claiming asylum without good reason, if (s)he did not claim asylum in the first safe country, or has been convicted of a criminal offence such as using false travel documentation
Who can claim asylum?
Under the 1951 Geneva Convention, asylum seekers must show that:- They have a well-founded fear of persecution in their home country
- The persecution is for one of the five reasons specified in the Convention: race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion
- They would be at risk of persecution if they were returned
Asylum by numbers
- The backlog of people waiting for an asylum decision or for an appeal to be heard is reported to be in the tens of thousands
- More than half of "non-straightforward" applicants had been waiting more than a year for a decision, as of March 2017, according to a report by chief inspector of borders and immigration David Bolt
- 26,350 people applied for asylum in the UK in 2017, according to Gov.uk - a decrease of 14% from 2016
- 14,767 people were granted asylum or alternative forms of protection and resettlement in 2017, including 5,866 children
- Additionally, 5,218 family reunion visas were issued to partners and children of those granted asylum or humanitarian protection in the UK
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