Everything You Need to Know About Asylum and Humanitarian Protection Laws in the

Posted by Rickyadam on August 25th, 2021

If life is difficult for you or you feel scared about your safety in your home country, then seeking asylum elsewhere can be a good solution. The UK is one of the best countries to seek refuge in, with a strong legal system in place to protect anyone who is under the care of the British humanitarian protection system.

There are, however, certain criteria that you must meet and documents that you have to submit to be eligible for asylum in the UK. Immigration solicitors can advise you about this process like no others. Learn more from them here.

Humanitarian Protection vs. Refugee Status

Refugee status and humanitarian protection may seem like the same thing, but they\'re slightly different. When a person arrives in the UK to seek asylum, the UK Home Office assesses whether they meet the criteria to be granted refugee status. If they don\'t, they check whether they meet the criteria for humanitarian protection status.

To meet the refugee status, the person has to be facing serious threats to life and security in their home country based on race, religion, nationality, being a part of a particular social group, or political opinion. In humanitarian protection, these reasons don\'t have to be present and evidence of a threat to life in the home country. The death penalty, religion-based violence, etc., would grant a person humanitarian protection status.

Eligibility to be an Asylum Seeker in the UK

To be eligible to seek asylum in the United Kingdom, you need to be in the country already or at a port to the country. Applying for asylum from outside the UK does not make you eligible for it. The next thing the Home Office will assess is if you are eligible to be given refugee status, humanitarian protection status, or permission to stay in the United Kingdom.

Following that, they will check whether offering asylum to the person would result in a threat to the nation\'s security and whether they have been convicted of any serious crimes. Over 18,000 Syrian refugees have settled in the UK since 2014 following the Syrian war.

In recent events, the United Kingdom has offered a scheme to resettle 20,000 refugees from Afghanistan in the country following the Taliban takeover of the country. They have promised to give priority to women, girls, and other minorities.

Benefits Offered by the UK

The United Kingdom offers asylum seekers five years of leave grant to live in the United Kingdom with the rights to study, work, and access benefits offered by the National Health Service (NHS). After the five years is over, they can apply to settle in the UK on indefinite leave, assuming that the situation in their home country hasn\'t gotten much better. They are also granted the allowance to visit their family members from who they have been separated.

Process of Seeking Asylum in the UK

If you have successfully entered the United Kingdom, either illegally or by a visa for a different purpose, you should plead for asylum. The Home Office will be in touch with you and grant you the right to a private lawyer or provide you with one. You will have to meet their eligibility criteria to qualify for getting refugee or humanitarian protection status.  

Once you have successfully met these criteria and have been granted the relevant status, you are given a convention travel document. This temporary blue passport allows you to travel between the UK and other countries. It is unsafe for you to use your own country\'s passport and the travel document allows you to avoid any potential risk of getting caught and being deported back to your country when travelling abroad.

Once you have spent five years in the UK on asylum, you can hire an immigration solicitor to help you appeal for permission to settle in the UK indefinitely as your life is still in danger back in your home country.

A consultation with an immigration lawyer can guide you better about the legal process of seeking asylum in the UK. They can provide you with the best advice on what should be the next course of action. Professional legal experts at Wembley Solicitors are well-versed in immigration law, asylum and humanitarian protection, work visas, student visas, and permanent residency in the UK. 

About the Author:

The author is an experienced immigration solicitor at Wembley Solicitors. They have worked on several complicated cases about illegal immigration, asylum-seeking, and settlement in the UK and have sufficient knowledge about the legalities involved in all these cases.