The Refugee Council has published a new analysis of the latest developments in the UK asylum system.

The report, published 19 March 2020, forms part of the Asylum Information Database, a project coordinated by the European Council on Refugees and Exiles which aims to provide up to date information on asylum practice in 23 countries.

The UK report gives a comprehensive overview of the asylum procedure, drawing together relevant facts and figures relating to refugees and people seeking asylum in Britain.

This year’s report includes the latest immigration statistics covering 2019. It is the first report published since the UK officially left the European Union on 31 January 2019 and during the transition period. In the light of this there remains uncertainty around post-2020 arrangements regarding people seeking asylum, particularly in relation to the Dublin III Regulation and notably the future of its family unity clauses.

The report summarises legal and policy developments and mentions important jurisprudence, including a case ruling the detention of many people purely to enable Dublin transfers, which rendered unlawful the detention of many people between 2014 and 2017. It also refers to a 2019 report into the consistent failure of asylum decision-making, resulting, it argues, from the Home Office’s consistent failure to implement recommendations to improve measures.

The report also covers asylum support developments and pulls together the commentary surrounding the new asylum accommodation and support contracts that began in 2019. Major recent research reports are mentioned, including those adding to the body of evidence of a failure to adequately support newly recognised refugees in their transition to mainstream support; an issue the Refugee Council has repeatedly raised.

Judith Dennis, Policy Manager at the Refugee Council and report author, said:

“We are very proud to contribute to the Asylum Information Database which gives an extremely comprehensive picture of the state of refugee protection across Europe.

“The UK’s report card remains ‘good in parts, but still much room for improvement’ in relation to all aspects of the refugee experience in this country. This report is a factual one and the facts within it speak for themselves; people still wait too long for the right decision on their claim and the Government is still failing to ensure that everyone who claims asylum is treated with the dignity they deserve and the basic support to which they are entitled.”