What Is Asylum In The UK?

• Law Firm: Richmond Chambers Immigration Barristers
• Subject Matter: Government, Public Sector, Immigration, Human Rights, General Immigration
• Author: Ms Harriet Sheves
• Published date: 09 May 2023

Asylum and asylum seekers have been near-constant features of the news cycle in the UK for several years now. With the recent introduction of the Nationality and Borders Act, the Rwanda policy and the government's proposed Illegal Migration Bill, the topic is set to remain highly relevant.

Undeniably however, asylum and refugee law also remain widely misunderstood. This article will define the key terms associated with asylum and explain how these kinds of applications are made in the UK.

What is asylum?

'Asylum' is a type of protection, established as a legal concept by the UN Refugee Convention in 1951, partly in response to the refugee crisis created by the Holocaust and the Second World War, which saw millions of people displaced throughout Europe and the world.

In 1948 the UN Human Rights Convention recognised a right for people to seek protection from persecution in another country (Article 14). The Refugee Convention, written a few years later, was intended to codify this right. The UK was an original signatory to the Refugee Convention and played a key role in drafting its terms.

What's the difference between an asylum seeker and a refugee?

The terms 'refugee' and 'asylum seeker' refer to people at different stages of the process of seeking protection.

All asylum seekers are potential refugees. Asylum seekers are people who have left their home country to escape dangerous circumstances and are looking to claim international protection under the Refugee Convention. Asylum seekers can make a claim for protection (an asylum claim) in any country which is a signatory to the Refugee Convention. A refugee is a person who has been found to be eligible for that protection.

How do you claim asylum?

There is no requirement under the Refugee Convention for an asylum seeker to claim asylum in the first safe country they arrive in after leaving their country of origin. This is partly to prevent countries in particularly dangerous regions from bearing the majority burden of international protection.

However, in the UK it is considered that those in need of international protection should claim asylum in their first safe country they reach. Following the introduction of the Nationality and Borders Act, 2022, asylum seekers who are not considered to have arrived in the UK directly from a country or territory where their life or freedom was threatened will receive differential treatment, most notably receiving a different type of leave to remain if they are found to qualify for refugee status.

Under the Refugee Convention signatory states are required to consider applications for asylum made from within their country. States will assess whether the asylum seeker meets the definition of a 'refugee' as set out in the Convention.

Asylum seekers in the UK must register their claim...