Department has admitted that it hid the policy due to concerns about former PM’s reaction

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    49 months ago

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    Theresa May is to confront the Home Office after it was found to have kept an “appalling” asylum policy secret, amid internal fears that its approach would be attacked by the former prime minister and other senior politicians.

    In an extraordinary finding, the high court concluded last week that the Home Office had operated a secret policy that affected the asylum rights of at least 1,500 people found to be genuine victims of trafficking and modern slavery.

    It heard that ministers had secretly opted not to implement a court ruling stating that confirmed victims of trafficking and modern slavery should be given leave to remain in the UK while their asylum claims were pending.

    Another disclosure from the Home Office showed an official warning that automatically handing such a right to trafficking victims would have “significant operational implications” and was likely to impact “our ability to clear the asylum legacy backlog by the end of December 2023”.

    The issue arose after a landmark high court ruling in November 2021, which found that victims of trafficking who were waiting for an asylum decision should be given temporary permission to stay in the UK and granted some associated rights.

    In the new court ruling last week, the Home Office was accused of failing to deal with these cases, meaning trafficking victims could not claim benefits or work freely.


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