-Caveat Lector- >From http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,783814,00.html
Iraqis head list as asylum figures rise Majority of applicants are genuine with more than 50% given permission to stay in Britain, Home Office figures show Alan Travis, home affairs editor Saturday August 31, 2002 The Guardian The number of asylum seekers arriving in Britain rose by 4% to 20,400 between April and June this year, according to Home Office figures published yesterday. They also show that most are genuine and more than 50% are given permission to stay. The largest group, 3,420, came from Iraq with numbers up by a fifth, followed by Afghanistan, 2,130, Somali, 1,455, and Zimbabwe, 1,345, all countries going through political upheavals. On a smaller scale there was also a surge in asylum claims from the Czech Republic which rose from 80 in the first quarter to 595 in the second three months of the year. The figures also show that a rising proportion are being recognised as having a genuine case with 36% of the 19,625 given an initial decision between April and June this year given permission to stay. A further 3,450 of those who appealed against an initial refusal were also given permission to stay, pushing the overall "recognition rate" to more than 50% of all applicants. The proportion of asylum seekers who have not been given full refugee status but have been given exceptional leave to stay in Britain has been steadily rising over the last two years. In 2000 only 12% were given exceptional leave to remain, this rose to 17% of all initial decisions made during 2001 and is now running at the rate of 26% of all initial asylum decisions. The Home Office statistics also underline why the home secretary, David Blunkett, has been forced to drop his target of 30,000 a year removals of failed asylum seekers by December next year. The figures show that there were 3,120 asylum seekers, including children, deported during the second quarter of this year. Although this was a record number and an 11% in crease over 12 months before it was still little more than a third of the target figure. It is expected that a fresh target will be set later this autumn. The immigration minister, Beverley Hughes, confirmed that a more "achievable" deportation target is to be set later this year. "The 30,000 target that was set some time ago wasn't really a target that, within the capacity of the organisation at that time, was readily achievable," she said. "We need to look again at the target." The numbers of asylum seekers held in detention was 1,440 at the end of June including 300 held at the "fast- track" Oakington reception centre near Cambridge and the remainder in immigration service removal centres. The largest individual nationalities are Czech (180), Yugoslavian (120) and Nigerian (100). Ms Hughes said the quarterly figures presented a "mixed picture" that demonstrated Britain's asylum system was now capable of producing faster decisions and increased removals of failed asylum seekers. "We have however seen a slight increase in the numbers of applications, particularly from Iraq and the Czech Republic. Most cases that have been decided of the latter group have been found to be unfounded claims. "This underlines the importance of our proposal that those with clearly unfounded claims could be removed following an initial decision. If they want to appeal they would have to do so from outside the UK," said Ms Hughes. But the shadow home secretary, Oliver Letwin, claimed the statistics showed that the asylum system remained in chaos. "The critical problem is that the government is nowhere near meeting its target for removing failed asylum seekers," he said. "Its plans for large, slow-moving, accommodation centres will not have a chance of solving the problem." However, Nick Hardwick of the Refugee Council said the figures showed a further increase in the numbers of asylum seekers given a positive decision to stay in Britain that proved the majority are fleeing for their lives from harsh and oppressive regimes. Nick Baker of the Liberal Democrats said he feared that the increase in successful appeals - from one in five to one in four of all cases - suggested that in some cases fairness had been sacrificed for speed in the initial decisions. 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