The Home Office has apologised to asylum applicants who were given permission to stay in the country. The individuals who received formal residency permits through the post were advised to destroy them. The Home Office has clarified that a systemic technological issue was the cause of this.
According to charities, the people and their families were told of the Home Office’s mistake after they had been celebrating being permitted to stay in the UK. The error’s impact on the number of people has not been made public yet.
The people that were involved are impacted by the mistake. One individual has received a letter stating that their asylum claim has been successful and they have been granted refugee status and five years’ permission to remain in the UK. Following this, they got happy that their claim has finally been successful after two years of uncertainty. However, a few weeks later, they received another letter from the Home Office informing them that the system had made a mistake and the refugee status was not granted. The Home Office has apologised and requested the new biometric residency cards to be destroyed. They have instructed that the biometric residency cards should be cut in half and pictures of it to be emailed to the Home Office.
In a different situation, an Iranian couple had been waiting for a decision for 19 months when Migrant Help notified them over the phone that they had been granted refugee status. However, a few days later they received another phone call from the migrant help and found out that this was an error. They were eventually informed that a permanent decision had been made to grant them refuge for a second time after another two months had gone by, but they did not believe it to be genuine. The mistake has emotionally affected them.
The director of Asylum Matters, Lou Calvey stated that “It’s sheer torment.” People who have frequently waited years for their decision, just to have it taken from them, and suffer terrible effects. Calvey went on to say that there is palpable chaos in government processing & decision-making and he urged the next Labour government to urgently reconstruct the fundamental elements of the asylum procedure.
A letter was published recently urging the next government to change the fundamentally dysfunctional immigration policy. According to the Justice Gap, the letter recommends that the Illegal Migration Act and the Nationality and Borders Act be repealed, safer avenues for refugee resettlement be opened, community housing be provided, and the right to work for asylum seekers be restored.
The Home Office spokesman stated that they are dedicated to enhancing the caliber and precision of their decision-making, which will preserve the integrity of the system and aid in reducing delays and avert the repeating of past errors.