Background
3.The Minister of State for Citizenship, Immigration and Counter-Terrorism announced proposals on asylum reform to Parliament on 27 October 2003. Ministers from the Home Office and the Department for Constitutional Affairs published a letter on 27 October 2003 outlining the Government’s proposals on asylum reform. This letter provides the background to the Act. The letter set out a range of proposals which are intended to:
streamline the immigration and asylum appeals system;
deal with undocumented arrivals;
deal with situations where it is deemed that a country other than the United Kingdom is best placed to consider someone’s asylum or human rights claim substantively;
withdraw family support after appeal from those who are in a position to leave the UK; and
enhance the powers of the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (“OISC”).
4.During the passage of the Bill through the Lords a number of new policy proposals were put forward which are intended to:
enable the provision of accommodation to failed asylum seekers to be made conditional upon the participation in community activities;
establish a local connection, for housing purposes, for an asylum seeker who is provided with accommodation under section 95 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999;
replace the current system of backpayments of income support and related benefits with a system of loans to refugees; and
tackle sham marriages.
