It was seen as a ‘badge of honour’ to refuse asylum applications, says Former Home Office employee
4 February 2023, 13:20
Former Home Office employee says it was a 'badge of honour' to refuse asylum requests
This caller, who used to work in the Home Office, offers insight into the process of asylum applications in a discussion about Rishi Sunak’s plan to ban deportation appeals.
Baljit in Southall told Paul Brand that “the rules are pretty strict,” but that the main problem was that “there was a very negative attitude towards asylum seekers”.
He recalled his team leader openly boasting about “having a 100% refusal rate,” and said they would be “displeased if we ever found that an applicant was truthful”.
Paul asked whether those who had refused the most asylum applications were seen as better-performing employees.
Baljit confirmed it was a 'badge of honour' to refuse cases, and emphasised this attitude is why the courts are so important as an “impartial service,” because they judged cases “independent of the Home Office and the applicant” and, as a result, could see “both sides of the argument”.
Caller waited 10 years to get indefinite visa
Paul then wanted to know how it felt as an employee to see the process “slow down massively” when they went to court, asking whether Baljit was ever frustrated that individuals whose claims weren’t legitimate could challenge the decision.
But Baljit in Southall said there “wasn’t a huge backlog” of cases and it was easy to spot cases that weren’t transparent.
“If you’re pretending to be from Syria, it’s very difficult to fabricate that experience and being from that area”, he said.
Baljit concluded by imploring people to look beyond “the simple rhetoric” that the public are told about migrants and those trying to gain access to the UK, and that a lot of the applicants that he personally dealt with were “highly educated and very successful” individuals.
