Following threat of judicial review, Government reverses Priti Patel's removal announcement
The refugee charity Care4Calais said today that the Government has now confirmed that its recent announcement of a new scheme to fast track the removal of Albanians from the UK would not apply to asylum seekers as had originally been claimed.
Image credit: UK GovernmentCare4Calais said the Government had performed a major climbdown under the threat of judicial review.
At the end of last month, the Home Office announced that it had agreed new plans with the Albanian government to expedite the removal of Albanians following growing numbers crossing the Channel via small boats.
A Home Office statement published on 25 August said: "Removal of Albanians with no right to be in the UK will be fast-tracked wherever possible, under new plans agreed to tackle the scourge of small boat crossings."
The then Home Secretary Priti Patel suggested large numbers of Albanians were abusing the UK immigration system by crossing the Channel to claim asylum in the UK. Patel said the Home Office would take every opportunity to speed up the removal of Albanians with no right to be in the UK. The statement added that Albania was a "safe and prosperous country" and many Albanians were making "spurious asylum claims".
News media, including the Guardian, quoted the then Home Secretary as saying at the time: "It is shameful and absurd that so many Albanian nationals are entering the UK via small boats when their home country, Albania, is a safe country. … These Albanian nationals are brought here illegally by organised criminal networks travelling through multiple EU countries. They are asylum shopping, making attempts to claim asylum in the UK in the hope that they can remain here and disappear into the criminal underworld fuelled by Albanian gangs. We will bring this to an end."
Acting for Care4Calais, Duncan Lewis solicitors sent a pre-action letter to the Government requesting disclosure of the proposed new fast-track scheme.
Care4Calais announced today: "We have now received a letter from the Government stating that any Albanians who claim asylum WILL NOT be fast tracked in the way announced by Patel. As virtually all Albanian refugees arriving will seek asylum, this makes the proposed policy insignificant."
According to the Guardian, the letter by the Government Legal Department stated that the arrangements with the Albanian government "do not apply to asylum seekers". The letter also confirmed that people arriving in the UK by boat cannot be treated as illegal immigrants.
Clare Moseley of Care4Calais told the Guardian: "Under the threat of judicial review, the government has performed a major climbdown. In doing so, they are accepting that people from Albania have the right to make an asylum claim and have it fairly heard. This is a victory for human decency."
Care4Calais said the original announcement was another example of a bogus "policy" that the Government knew well might not happen, and was only designed to appease Government supporters who oppose all refugees and are interested in hard lines and tough stances no matter the consequences.
The refugee charity added: "This poisonous stream of announcements must stop; it serves only to misrepresent the issue, spread panic and dehumanise the very people we should be listening to and helping."
Official Home Office statistics published last month show that in the year ending June 2022, 53% of asylum seekers from Albania received a positive decision on their claim and a grant of protection. The rate differed considerably between Albanian adult men, with a grant rate of 14%, and Albanian women and children, with a grant rate of 90%.
Last week, VICE News published a report on the reasons why so many Albanian were claiming asylum. VICE reported: "[T]he reality on the ground in Albania … is very different from the picture painted in the UK media. Instead, Albanians are being driven to risk their lives crossing the channel by a perfect storm of rising poverty, corruption and psychological trauma which has been leveraged by increasingly efficient trafficking gangs."