TNAG-1800-FCO40-2560-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-principle-of-first-asylum-1988 — Page 175

ра

HOME OFFICE

Lunar House, Wellesley Road, CROYDON CRS 231

Occ:

Our reference:

Ms Slater, This explanation of UK policy might be useful

HKD

2341

Telephone: 01-760

©

Your reference: GV243/1 pa-uk policy

پرسش

David Harrison Esq

• Viet refugees

In 1015

Купила.

4/5.

sempy

to (1) Mr.

Migration and Visa Department Foreign and Commonwealth Office LONDON SW1A 2AH

HRD 243/ !! нко

Dean Dand,

'1988

1963

34)

28 April 1988

EED;

Figgi's

(2) Heads of SAD, MED, EAD,

WAD and

find

UND

who

may

this statement helpful.

Thank you for your letter of 15 April asking about the criteria we apply in considering granting asylum or exceptional leave to remain.

ASYLUM.

2. We look first at whether an applicant qualifies for refugee status. Decisions are taken on the individual merits of each case judged against the criterion established in the UN Convention: whether there is a well-founded fear of persecution on grounds of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. Such decisions inevitably have a number of different elements but amongst the most important are on the one hand the information we have about conditions in the country in which a fear of persecution is claimed and, on the other, the information which the individual is able to give about his own circumstances covering past experiences in that country and the risks he might face if returned there.

-

3. Knowledge about conditions in the country concerned is clearly very important and advice from FCO colleagues can be crucial. For example, knowing that Bahais are systematically ill-treated and deprived of rights by the Iranian government who view them as heretics means that many Bahais in this country have been able to make out a case for refugee status. A different example is given by the position of Tamils in Sri Lanka. We know that there has been considerable disorder in Sri Lanka but the Government has decided on the basis of information from a range of sources that, although life may well have been unpleasant for them, Tamils are not liable to persecution per se.

4. The courts have been involved in a number of Tamil cases and argument has centred on the meaning of a "well-founded fear of persecution". The case of Sivakumaran, decided by the House of Lords last December, has established that the fear must be objectively justified by conditions in the applicant's country

5/5