A recent report has been prepared by the Independent Chief Inspector David Bolt of Borders and Immigration to examine whether the current format and contents of the Country Policy and Information notes are consistent with the UK’s obligations to asylum seekers. The report has urged the Home Office to fundamentally revisit and change the Country Policy and Information notes which guide officials making decisions in Asylum and Human Rights claims.
Country Policy and Information notes have a key role in Asylum decision making and thus it is important that the information in these notes are representative of the current circumstances of that specific country as well as up to date and realistic.
These notes are relied upon heavily by officials and the information can be detrimental to someone’s Asylum claim if the information is not accurate.
The report prepared by Chief Inspector states that decision makers “appeared to have no clear understanding of what constituted ‘reliable and up-to-date information’ as required by the Immigration Rules”.
Thus the recent report of recommendations for change means that when asylum seekers make a claim, the information once reformed used by officials as “reliable and up to date information” will, in theory, be beneficial to claimants.
Some of the recent Asylum decisions being made by officials have been successful at the Immigration Tribunal as officials may have failed to correctly assess Asylum seekers claim in the initial stage. This is due to the information relied upon in their decisions are often based on the information which comes from the Country Policy and Information notes. Therefore it is fundamental that the information is reformed so that more claims are successful in the initial stages.
If one has to claim Asylum seeking refugee status in the UK, this alone is not an easy fete nor a process which one would want to endure for a long period of time. It is often a time which is surrounded by emotions and fear and thus it is important that any decision made in the initial stages of an Asylum claim is made with accurate information.
The report prepared by Chief inspector Bolt lists a number of problems with the Country Policy and Information notes as they currently stand. Some of which were:
- A decision-maker relying on country information “relating to the conditions for gay men in Algeria to decide the claim of a lesbian claimant”
- In one report for Afghanistan: Sexual orientation and gender identity January 2017, it failed to give an accurate representation of the circumstances if a Gay man relocated back to Afghanistan (Kabul) and the real risk he may face of persecution. The report in short mentions he “would not face a real risk”. The statement made in the report was contradicted by a letter from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office which gave a different perspective on this issue of relocation and acceptance of homosexuality in Afghanistan, stating that just because there has been no known deaths sentences for homosexuality and a fall in criminal convictions is not an expression of increased openness towards homosexuality (in Afghanistan), but because that there is more respect for the rule of law under the current government as opposed to the previous Taliban regime.
It is evident from some of the extracts taken from the report, if the above information was used by a decision maker it could have had a detrimental effect on the decision of someone’s Asylum claim and thus the information has to be accurate and realistic if it is to be relied on.
