UK and Bangladesh signed a deal aiming for faster deportations to Bangladesh. Affectees would be overstayers, rejected asylum seekers, and people convicted of offenses.
The representatives of the UK and Bangladesh signed the deal in a meeting in London this week reports infomigrant. This would indeed help the UK with faster deportations.
As reported by the Telegraph, 11,000 international students, workers, and visitor visa holders subsequently submitted a claim of asylum in the UK. The newspaper further claimed based on official leaked documents that an increase of 154 percent has been seen in people holding visas and applying for asylum in the year to March 2023. After Pakistanis, Bangladeshi nationals become number second of the most visa system-breeching countries.
Jon Featonby of the Refugee Council denied the claims of the Telegraph. He claimed according to the government’s figures, in 2023 only about 5,500 asylum claims in total were lodged by Bangladeshis. These numbers include both those arriving irregularly and those arriving on visas.
According to the UK government’s asylum report 2023, the grant rate for Bangladeshi nationals remained at 28%. This means a large number of rejected asylum claims could be deported back to Bangladesh.
UK Asylum Report 2023
The UK has already issued the asylum applications report for 2023. About 62,336 people were granted refugee status or other asylum protection. This is the highest number of success number since the records began in 1984. Overall asylum application (67,337) submission rate went up to 17% compared to the previous year. On the other hand, asylum applications rose from the nationals of:
- Pakistan: 3,835 (63% increase)
- India: 4,487 (45%) increase
- Turkey: 3,636 (86%)
Asylum applications submitted from the nationals of Iran, Afghanistan, and Syria saw a decrease.
The asylum grant division (approval) for 2023 is as follows:
| Application types | Approval of asylum |
| refugee permission | 57,324 |
| humanitarian protection | 3,571 |
| alternative forms of protection | 1,367 |
| temporary refugee permission | 74 |
Asylum application in the UK with illegal entry
When an asylum applicant has used an illegal route to enter the UK without a visa, according to recent rules passed by the lawmakers, it is prohibited to apply for an asylum application. The UK has made a deal with Rwanda to deport such asylum claimants. Resulting this deal, many asylum seekers fled to Ireland even which caused tensions between the two countries (the UK and Ireland).
Asylum application with legal entry into the UK
It is not illegal to submit an asylum application in the UK when the applicant has entered legally on a visa in the country. Officially, this means an applicant for an asylum claim, can file it if his mode of travel to the UK was through a valid visa issued by the embassy or consulate of the United Kingdom.
Expert Opinion
We asked the opinion of the immigration expert “Umer Rasib” from Germany about this deal and the asylum situation in the UK and he replied;
“The new deal between the UK and Bangladesh would still depend upon the cooperation of Bangladeshi officials such as embassies or consulates in the UK. The deportation process needs their support to be finalized. However, it would help increase the number of deportations as the success rate of asylum applications in the UK is only 28% for the previous which does not seem to get better in 2024.
Applying for asylum application should be judged not only apparently but on the proper hearing of the applications. Sometimes some people need protection even though their families have fled with them to the UK using the visit visa or any other work visa route. The UK must also comply with international protection laws as the current policies of the government clearly show us a strategy to overcome asylum applicants’ issues even if they entered the country legally or illegally.
Countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, and Afghanistan cannot be considered as safe as other developed countries. So if the number of asylum applications has increased from these countries, there are political, personal, or religious reasons for that. It is hoped the UK government will take full care of such matters as fleeing wars, difficult situations, and persecution of any means that have ruined the lives of these affectees.”