Fatal flaws in the UK asylum decision-making system

An analysis of Home Office refusal letters

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3607016
AutoresLiza Schuster (0000-0003-2896-0575, City, University of London, autor de correspondencia)
Año2020
Volumen46
Número7
Páginas1371-1387
Fecha de publicación2020-05-18
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaNew Community (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0047-9586 • E-ISSN: 1469-9451
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1369183x.2018.1552827
OpenAlexW2902297511
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas13
Referencias citadas29

The process of deciding who is in need of international protection is well established most western liberal democracies, and has been subject to critical scrutiny for decades. And yet asylum seekers remain vulnerable to serious and ongoing flaws in that system. In this paper, based on research conducted in Afghanistan 2012–2018, Schuster explores a number of shortcomings in the asylum decision-making process, specifically with regard to the rejection of claims from Afghans. The analysis of Reasons for Refusal Letters, allows Schuster to examine the use of key tools in that process (previous cases and country of origin reports). Schuster argues that the current adversarial approach, which seeks to prove an applicant is not credible or does not need protection, undermines the legitimacy of the asylum and risks refusing protection to those in need and or condemning others to years of damaging appeals before they are granted asylum. She concludes by arguing for a shift to a more investigative approach, one that seeks to identify those in need of protection, rather than to keep numbers low

Adversarial system · Law and economics · Legitimacy · Political science · Politics · Refugee · Scrutiny · Sociology · Global Security and Public Health · Law · Migration, Health and Trauma · Migration, Refugees, and Integration