[UK] How asylum seekers are made to feel ‘like criminals’ during Home Office questioning

The findings of Freedom from Torture’s report, based on reviews of transcripts of asylum interviews carried out by the Home Office in 2017 or 2018 and a series of focus groups and interviews involving 25 torture survivors who had attended asylum interviews, shows they were often prevented from giving a full account of their experiences or denied the opportunity to explain their evidence.

The report states that some Home Office case workers were found to employ “poor questioning technique” and were “likely to default to disbelieving the survivor” during the interviews, with sensitivity and professional approach to claimants “not always maintained”.

While the research was carried about before the coronavirus pandemic hit the UK, the charity [Freedom of Torture] says is particularly important now for problems within the asylum system to be considered in order to inform the processes – be they face-to-face or remote – the Home Office puts in place during and post-Covid-19.

Source: The Independent

Writer: May Bulman