UNHCR audit finds stateless people in UK at risk of detention and destitution
UNHCR audit finds stateless people in UK at risk of detention and destitution
A Home Office procedure designed to help regularise the status of stateless people in the UK is not functioning as well as it should due to procedural weaknesses and the approach to decision-making, according to an audit published today by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.
Shortcomings in evidence-gathering, and the lack of legal aid and right of appeal in the Government’s procedure for assessing cases leave some stateless people vulnerable to homelessness, destitution and, sometimes, prolonged detention, the study found.
Specialist lawyers have expressed concerns about recent decisions and delays in the Home Office’s handling of some statelessness applications. They fear some applicants may continue to face insurmountable barriers to documenting their applications.
“Being denied a nationality can be devastating,” said Rossella Pagliuchi-Lor, UNHCR UK Representative. “Statelessness can mean a life of enforced illegality without prospects or hope – being unable to regularise one’s presence in any country, socially excluded, economically marginalised, discriminated against and vulnerable to exploitation. Procedures to formally identify statelessness open the door to a recognition of rights and potentially to naturalisation. The UK is one of the first countries in the world to have established a statelessness procedure, and this is very positive. Strengthening these procedures will prevent people falling through the gaps.”
Ms. Pagliuchi-Lor urged the Government to ensure that statelessness applications are eligible for legal aid in England and Wales, that there is right of appeal to an independent body, and that stateless people are not unlawfully detained. “We’re ready to support the Government to ensure that all stateless people in the UK are properly identified, protected and given opportunities to thrive rather than just survive,” she added.
She welcomed the response to the audit by the Home Office, which recently introduced enhanced training for its teams and other measures to improve decision-making – including the introduction of a quality assurance framework.
The UK ratified the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons in 1959 and established a mechanism for recognising and protecting stateless people in 2013 (through the Immigration Rules). UNHCR welcomed the procedure, which enables stateless people to apply for statelessness leave to remain for five years. Determining the number of stateless people in the UK is very difficult, as it is a hidden issue. Numbers are, however, likely to be fairly small although many more are likely to be affected: from 2013-2019, there were approximately 160 first-time grants of leave through the procedure.
Harry, 70, whose Jewish mother survived the Holocaust, is one of the few who has been through the procedure and recognised as stateless. Born in Namibia, he grew up in Namibia and South Africa, but lacked citizenship of either. As a young man, he was an anti-apartheid activist. After being detained, he fled the regime and arrived in the UK in the early 1970s. Initially fearing deportation and imprisonment in South Africa, and seeing no solution, he avoided seeking to regularise his status in the UK until the procedure was introduced in 2013. “It really has been a slog,” said Harry, who was only able to marry his British partner of many years after he received indefinite leave in 2019. “Put yourself in the shoes of someone who has gone through this. It is absolutely knocking your head on walls.” Seven decades stateless, Harry hopes to apply for British citizenship soon.
UNHCR’s audit of 36 cases was conducted in 2018-2019 on cases decided in 2016-2017. It found evidence of good practice and areas for improvement. In general, there was a lack of clarity in grant and refusal letters around what facts were considered material and whether they were accepted or not, as well as a tendency to sometimes consider some facts in isolation.
Determining a negative - that someone does not have a nationality - can be challenging. UNHCR recommends that decisions always be based on a full review of an applicant’s entire Home Office file, and that the Home Office routinely assist applicants by contacting foreign governments to confirm their nationality status, unless there are reasons for not doing so. UNHCR also recommends that applicants be offered an interview, unless their application will be granted without one. Of 530 cases initially offered for audit, only ten applicants were interviewed. It is also important that resources are provided to ensure that timely decisions can be made: in 60% of cases audited, there were delays of over a year in decision-making.
The audit also found evidence of good practice by the Home Office. For example, in a majority of cases audited involving children (four of seven), the Home Office expedited the application, issuing decisions within six months. In some cases, Home Office caseworkers assisted applicants in gathering relevant evidence, in accordance with policy. UNHCR hopes to see more cases like these, and to assist the Home Office to further improve decision-making.
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Press contact: Matthew Saltmarsh: [email protected] +44 (0)7880 230 985