Seeking Refuge? - Rights of Women

8
Negative Decisions and Appeals
Introduction
Many people are forced to leave their country and
seek safety somewhere else. A claim for asylum or
some other form of protection in the UK is
decided initially by a case-owner in the UK
Border Agency 24 . The UK Border Agency is the
part of the Home Office that deals with asylum,
immigration and nationality issues. If your initial
application for protection to the UK Border
Agency is refused, you can appeal against it to
the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal. This
section will explain how you can appeal against a
negative decision to the Asylum and Immigration
Tribunal and what your options are, if your appeal
is also refused.
The law discussed here is very complicated.
This Chapter is written to give you
information about the law, but it is not legal
advice. If you have applied for protection in
the UK, or are thinking about doing this, it is
very important that you seek legal advice
from a solicitor or immigration advisor. You
can also contact Rights of Women’s legal
advice line. See Chapter 12 at the end of this
book for information about organisations
that provide legal advice.
Refusal of your initial claim
A claim for asylum or some other form of
protection in the UK is decided initially by a caseowner
in the UK Border Agency.
“
The case-owner is the person
who is responsible for your
case. You may have one caseowner
throughout your case, or
you may have different caseowners
at different stages in
the process.
”
Case-owners have a number of responsibilities
including:
- Conducting your asylum interview.
- Working with your legal representative to
clarify the issues in the case.
- Controlling the progression of your case by
altering the times that certain things are
done (for example the date of the interview),
if flexibility is required.
- Making an initial decision on whether you
should be granted protection in the UK, or
whether your claim should be refused.
Your legal representative (or you, if you don’t
have a legal representative) should be in close
contact with your case-owner(s) throughout
the process.
When making a decision about whether or not
you should be offered protection in the UK, the
case-owner should consider:
• the information and evidence that you have
given them. This will include what you have
said in your interview and any other evidence
that you have provided (for example, from
other witnesses, or in a medical or other
report); and,
• the relevant law.
There are three sources of law that determine
who is entitled to protection in the UK:
• the Refugee Convention 1951;
• the European Convention on Human
Rights1950; and
• European Union Law.
23
Temporary Protection Directive (Council Directive 2001/55/EC).
24
It used to be called the Border and Immigration Agency (the BIA) and before that the Immigration and Nationality Directorate
(the IND).
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