Unsustainable initial decisions

Event Date:

Friday, 28 January 2011

Asylum Aid has published a new report entitled, Unsustainable: the quality of initial decision-making in asylum claims. The report uncovers the concerns that NGOs have raised for years about the poor quality of decision-making of women’s asylum claims.

Women experience persecution differently to men with women’s asylum claims requiring a gender specific approach and assessment.

This report highlights the ways in which such an assessment fails. It highlights how UK Border Agency decision-makers have a limited understanding of how to interpret and apply the Refugee Convention appropriately in relation to gender.

Initial decision-making is shown to be of poor quality, arbitrary and subjective.

Indeed, women’s asylum claims receive a disproportionate number of refusals, which are later overturned at appeal. The report shows failures within both procedural and substantive areas, making specific and targeted recommendations.

The quality of initial decision-making must urgently improve. Fair, accurate, and sustainable decisions need to be made in order to promote a more robust and gender sensitive system.

The full report is available here.

Unsustainable initial decisions

Unsustainable initial decisions

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