ASYLUM seekers are being forced to make a round trip of almost 500 miles to hand deliver documents to government officials.

People who are seeking political refuge all over the UK, including Southampton, are being made to travel to Liverpool, since the government has stopped them from being able to make fresh claims in the city.

The move has been criticised by the Southampton and Winchester Visitors Group (SWVG) which supports asylum seekers who have had their initial claims rejected by the Home Office. 

A spokesperson for the charity said: "Making asylum seekers travel to Liverpool is not necessary or justifiable, it’s a punitive measure to deter them from what is their legal right."

Previously the asylum seekers would be able to bring evidence to support their claim to a reporting station within a central police station in the city.

Now asylum seekers who have exhausted a previous claim and an appeal must pay more than £100 for a five-hour train journey to Merseyside to present evidence for a new one. 

"You cannot give people a legal right but then make it as hard as possible for them to actually do it," said the SWVG spokesperson. 

The charity states that many asylum seekers whose initial claims were rejected by the Home Office are subsequently successful once they have the time to put together a comprehensive case with effective legal support.

Yoosef, from Iran, made the journey to Liverpool where it took him less than two minutes to hand a bundle of papers to an official as he did not have to answer any questions.

“I just gave him the papers and he handed me a receipt," said Yoosef who has since been granted leave to remain in the UK, and is permitted to work.

Any government legal or financial support is unavailable once the appeal for asylum is rejected, SWVG works with individuals, including paying for travel expenses. 

The charity explained that many of the people that arrive in the UK do not have the necessary evidence with them to support their accounts of persecution, however with time that evidence can become available, for example via doctors assessments or proof sent from their place of origin.

Some refused asylum seekers return home, others become homeless.
The charity is urging the Home Office to accept the information via post or online. 

Chair of SWVG, Anne Leeming, said: “Asylum seekers have every right to make fresh claims to the Home Office. It is extremely frustrating, not to say expensive, for asylum seekers to be forced to travel such long distances to make them.”

Attendance at the Home Office centre in Liverpool is by appointment and if the appointment is missed the documents can not be handed to the appointed staff member. 

A Home Office spokesperson said: "The further submissions process applies only to failed asylum seekers whose claims have already been carefully considered by UK Visas and Immigration, and their cases examined at appeal and found by the independent courts not to need protection or have any other basis to stay in the UK.”