Recommendation 9

Clause 11 would allow for individuals who have been recognised as refugees to be given inferior treatment, based on the way in which they came to the UK. We consider this to be inconsistent with the UK’s obligations under the Refugee Convention, which does not require asylum seekers to wait to be selected for resettlement programmes and does not require them to claim asylum in the first safe country they reach. The proposed differential treatment also appears likely to be inconsistent with the right to private and family life under Article 8 ECHR and the prohibition on discrimination under Article 14 ECHR. At a time when there is already an unprecedented backlog of asylum claims, these changes would make the asylum decision-making process longer, more complicated and open to further appeals.