The Home Office is to scrap face-to-face interviews for asylum seekers from five countries.
Some 12,000 asylum seekers to the UK are to be considered for refugee status without face-to-face interviews.
The Home Office says this is not an asylum amnesty - but it will streamline the system for five nationalities. However, officials say there will be a follow-up notification if no reply is received, and every application will be considered on its own merits.Having previously stressed the importance of in-person interviews, the Home Office is likely to face criticism that the fast-tracking has more to do with the prime minister's promise to cut the asylum backlog, than having rigorous checks for identifying individuals with no right to be in the UK.
In December, Mr Sunak pledged to halve the number of people who had been waiting longer than six months for an initial decision on their asylum application. More than 92,000 people have been identified in that group.But Downing Street's determination to sort out the asylum backlog appears to mean making it simpler for thousands of migrants, some of whom will have arrived in small boats, to get permission to stay in the UK.
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