The Home Office has issued an apology to asylum seekers in the UK whose grants of leave to remain were inexplicably retracted, leaving many in distress and confusion.
In some troubling cases, individuals were issued residence permits only to be later instructed by officials to destroy them. Charities have reported numerous instances where asylum seekers, initially elated to receive leave to remain, were subsequently informed that mistakes had been made.
Officials have not disclosed how many individuals were affected by this error. In one particularly poignant case, an asylum seeker was overjoyed upon receiving a letter from Home Office officials, declaring, “Your claim for asylum has been successful, and you have been granted refugee status and five years’ permission to remain in the UK.”
“I was so happy to receive this letter,” the asylum seeker recounted. “My family and I had been left in limbo for two years, not knowing what would happen to us. But then, a few weeks later, I got another letter telling me the Home Office had made a mistake. I hadn’t received refugee status after all, and I had to destroy the biometric residence permits they sent me.”
The second letter, marked “official sensitive,” explained, “Unfortunately, an incorrect grant of leave has been given due to a technical fault in our system. The case will need to be reconsidered to amend this.”
The letter instructed the asylum seeker to return their biometric residency permit to a PO box address in Bristol, alongside a request to photograph the shredded cards and email the pieces to the Home Office with the dispatch reference number.
In another instance, an Iranian couple received a phone call from Migrant Help, a Home Office contractor, informing them that they had been granted leave to remain after waiting 19 months for a decision. “It was such a relief to get this news,” one asylum seeker said. “But two days later, we received another phone call saying it had been a mistake. It was a great shock, especially because in the second call, they told us our case had been completely rejected, not just that they were still considering it.”
Two months later, the couple received another decision from the Home Office, this time granting them asylum. “The whole thing was an emotional rollercoaster. When we got the decision granting us leave to remain the second time, we doubted its authenticity. I said to my wife, ‘It’s a joke, a cry-wolf story.’”
In a third case, a woman was evicted from her hotel because Home Office officials had informed her she had been granted leave to remain, despite no formal grant letter being issued. Subsequent correspondence advised her on how to voluntarily return to her home country.
Lou Calvey, director of the charity Asylum Matters, highlighted the severity of the situation, stating, “We are aware of multiple cases where grants of leave have been withdrawn by the Home Office due to mistakes. It’s sheer torment. It has devastating consequences for people who often wait for years for a decision, only to have the rug pulled out from under them.”
Calvey added, “The chaos in government processing and decision-making is palpable. The new government urgently needs to rebuild the basic functions of our asylum process.”
A Home Office spokesperson responded, “Whenever we identify an issue with a case, our team works swiftly to resolve it. We apologise for any inconvenience and distress caused. We are committed to improving the quality and accuracy of our decision-making to maintain the system’s integrity and help reduce delays.”
Related topics:
