B. SCREENING AND REVIEW
6.5.
In a speech reprinted in the Sunday Standard on 9th December, 1990, the Secretary for Security said: -
"I believe that our status determination procedures are fair and
thorough and that they compare favourably with the procedures used in other countries throughout the world. I do not claim they are perfect. We have improved them as we have gone along, in the light of experience gained, and no doubt, further fine-tuning and improvements can and will be made. And, in the final analysis,
any decision on refugee status is a matter of judgment and human judgment will always be fallible.'
Lord Caithness of the FCO was quoted in the South China Morning Post on 18th September, 1990:-
"'I have just seen the screening process. There is a right of appeal. It is a fair system and I think the authorities have
has gone along and there is full consultation with
learnt as the UNHCR.
i
6.6.1.
I understand why from an overall top-down point of view, the procedures seem to be of this character. However, I have to disagree from the point of view of how the system may actually operate in practice on the ground; but I must stress again that at present I am working from a single case, and on a hunch which I would like to test. If I am right, there are basic flaws in the system which can be addressed by a change of emphasis at each stage of the system. It might be possible to do this and save money overall, for I believe that changes could speed up the process, perhaps thereby saving on staff costs, albeit notionally: productivity must be difficult to measure in this context. As a start, I would ask readers to take the following examples, but not singly: please take them as a cumulative process, and look to see where the gaps are. But let me say one other thing too: people tell me the VBPs do tell quite a lot of tall stories, even downright lies: to do so would be perfectly natural in the circumstances. If this is problem, it needs to be addressed as well. I would like to speak to camp representatives about this. But for anyone to highlight this part of the problem without addressing overall questions of fairness and coherence would, I imagine, be counter-productive and perhaps self-interested.
6.6.2.
In relation to preparation
(a) The problem may be that asylum-seekers are not adequately prepared
for screening interviews. They may, therefore, not be
particularly clear in explanation, nor may they be easy to follow. This would be likely to add time to interviews; it may make taking