Woolas On Asylum Appeals

The Labour government, in next month's Queen's speech, plans to block appeals to high court judges from failed asylum seekers facing deportation.

The immigration minister, Phil Woolas, has this idea that asylum seekers only try appeals to prolong their stay. In reality, the Refugee Legal Centre, the largest provider of legal representation to asylum seekers, wins 50% of its cases on appeal.

Earlier in the week, Woolas criticised lawyers and non-governmental organisations who work on behalf of asylum seekers, saying they undermined the law itself, "played the system," were an "industry," and for good measure, also said that most asylum seekers were economic migrants.

Simon Barrow, co-director of Ekklesia: "It is utterly astonishing that a senior government minister should dismiss a court decision in this way, blame lawyers and others who give vulnerable people access to justice, and try to say that there is something wrong in appealing against the state's attempts to kick you out of the country. People win appeals because the system has failed them ... Governments attack human rights workers when they have something to hide. The UK authorities have been rightly criticised for dawn raids, removal of children and other abuses of justice in relation to people seeking asylum - even refusing to accept the legitimacy of their own numerous legal defeats. It is this that needs public investigation."

Also: http://stopdeportationofguy.wordpress.com/