New Labour’s attempts to tackle immigration were partly thwarted by a UN protocol which meant the UK was fundamentally deemed an “attractive destination” for asylum seekers, internal memos suggest. Home Office permanent secretary Sir David Omand said the 1951 Refugee Convention, which says refugees should not be sent back to a country where they face serious threats to their safety, and the “generous reception” given to people from the former Yugoslavia were partly to blame.
His concern was contained in a memo to Cabinet secretary Sir Richard Wilson in March 2000. Home Office figures at the time showed there were 6,680 asylum applications that month, up from 6,110 the previous month.
In his memo, contained within the latest tranche of declassified Cabinet files released by the National Archives in Kew, Sir David wrote: “The intake of asylum seekers is now running at double the rate when we published our plans and targets in 1998. It was not our political intent but we have a situation where the UK is an attractive destination for asylum seekers, not least because of the interpretation of the 1951 Convention by our courts and the continuing interference in the administration of the system through judicial reviews.
