The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, David Bolt, has announced that as part of his inspection of the UK’s asylum system, he is calling for evidence on the Home Office’s use of interpreters in the asylum process.

The deadline is 13 June.

The Committee on Justice and Equality in the Irish parliament are inviting written submissions from stakeholders and interested parties on the issues of Ireland’s “direct provision” asylum system, and what can be done to address the many issues that exist within this system.

The Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland (MASI) are asking groups in Britain and Northern Ireland if they would consider signing a statement which asks the Committee to bear in mind the 14 ‘Key principles for justice and dignity in the asylum process’ that MASI have put forward when considering what proposals to recommend to the government.

The Home Office has confirmed that they are abandoning their target, brought in in 2014, of deciding straightforward asylum claims within six months.

We launched the Right to Remain asylum navigation board (co-developed with Dr Victoria Canning of Bristol University and Calverts design and print cooperative) in Glasgow last week.

Here, Lisa Matthews (coordinator at Right to Remain) talks to Josh at Third Works about the asylum navigation board, and the main stages of the UK asylum process (in 2 minutes!).

Since 2016, we’ve been working with Early Asylum Support Sheffield, a volunteer group who run monthly information sessions for people newly-arrived to the area, on preparing for the asylum substantive interview.

An article by May Bulman in the Independent this week revealed that the number of “fresh claims” has more halved, attributed to a change in procedure for lodging the claims with the Home Office.

“The government’s position is that obtaining legal advice is not necessary in making an immigration application and that no advantage in the application process should accrue to people who choose to access, are able to afford legal advice, over those who cannot.”

Really?

If you have evidence you wish to submit to the Home Office to consider as a fresh claim after you are “appeal rights exhausted”, in most cases you need to make an appointment to submit the evidence in person at the Further Submissions Unit in Liverpool.

We’ve published a brand new section of the online Right to Remain Toolkit – on asylum support.

We’ve made a few changes to the Toolkit section on the asylum screening interview.

There’s new images, plus some more detail in certain sections, and we’ve changed the order round a little bit.

This page may be updated again very soon if No Deal Brexit, in which case the Dublin Regulations will cease to operate in the UK.