People seeking refuge in the UK face a “serious risk” of injustice as the Home Office plans to outsource another element of its immigration services, lawyers warn. The department says it has plans to bring in contractors to carry out asylum interviews and gather evidence for claims, which are used to determine whether applicants should be granted refugee status. In a letter to groups and charities working with asylum seekers on Tuesday, the acting head of asylum operations Dave Draper said the department was “scoping out and testing” the concept of using a third-party supplier to conduct asylum interviews and gather evidence, in a bid to “get the system moving again” following a suspension of the process during coronavirus.
But many of the firms in the running for this new contract – including G4S, Serco, and Sopra Steria – have been embroiled in previous scandals over handling of immigration services. Sopra Steria, which was contracted to run the UK’s visa processing system in 2018, was accused last year of overseeing a “substandard” operation that risked unlawful decisions and excluding people from the system because of “inflated prices and inaccessible services”. In 2017, nine G4S guards were suspended after they were filmed mocking and abusing detainees at Brook House removal centre, while Serco prompted outrage when it introduced lock changes in asylum accommodation in Glasgow in 2018.
Read more: May Bulman, Independent, https://is.gd/08jSZO
