The Guardian reports today on a strongly worded letter from the Law Society to the UK Border Agency and the UN refugee agency, protesting the broken system that is stopping refugees from submitting claims for asylum.

The letter, sent to the head of the Asylum Screening Unit (ASU) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), highlights concerns voiced by other groups about ASU facilities in Croydon – the only place in the whole of the UK where asylum claims can be made.

Legal representatives have had to threaten legal action on behalf of clients, just to get an appointment at the centre. The letter highlights the “negative and sometimes quite degrading treatment of people on their arrival at the ASU and the appalling nature of the physical environment which they expected to be in for often prolonged and indeterminate periods of time.”

The letter contained nine case studies. One detailed the experience of an elderly Zimbabwean woman who caught a bus at 3am in order to arrive at Croydon by 7am where she was given a letter informing her that she was too late to be seen that day.

Read the full article at the Guardian website