The Hell Of Being An Asylum Seeker

Everyone has the right to apply for asylum. If they have a justified fear of persecution then the host country is obliged to protect them. This is set down in the 1951 UN Refugee Convention. No country has ever withdrawn from the convention.

Consistently, however, the British government and its officials attempt to define its obligations to refugees as narrowly as possible. Sometimes they do this with breathtaking frankness, as in this refusal letter from the Home Office to an Algerian woman: 'You claim that you were ill-treated during detention, tortured and raped. The secretary of state does not condone any violations of human rights which may have been committed by members of the security forces,  [but],  to bring yourself within the scope of the UN Convention, you would have to show that these incidents were not simply the random acts of individuals, but were a sustained pattern or campaign of persecution directed at you by the authorities.'

It's worth reading that paragraph again. The Home Office is telling this woman that they don't care if she has been raped, tortured and imprisoned. It will help her only if she can prove that this was done repeatedly and according to some kind of plan.

Sometimes the government mounts legal battles to rid itself of refugees, as it did recently when it was condemned by the UN for winning a high court case to return refugees to Baghdad and Basra, thereby setting a precedent for removing refugees to other war zones.

Sometimes, the government alters the law itself to make it easier to remove asylum seekers. In 2004, for example, it became an offence for asylum seekers to fail to provide a proper immigration document to establish their identity and citizenship. This was hugely controversial. . . . . . . .

Continue reading here. . . . .

@ Akolawole
You talk about genuine asylum seekers,most people will certainly fall within the definition "membership of a particular social group" in relation to the UN definition of refugee-
owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.

This remind me of actions during my UNI days of the "Babagida must go" era.Students where planing to hit the USA and the UK embassies in thousands to seek for asylum.Reason-Torture and hardship the government have inflicted on her citizens.Lol

you go to a country that you will feel safe to stay.

 

don't forget also: there is economic persecution