‘Sheer torment’: Home Office apologises after asylum approvals retracted

15 July 2024: Guardian: ‘Sheer torment’: Home Office apologises after asylum approvals retracted

Some asylum seekers told to cut up residence permits after believing they had been granted leave to remain

The Home Office has apologised to asylum seekers granted leave to remain in the UK who then had their decisions retracted.

In some cases applicants were sent residence permits before being told by officials to cut them up.

Charities said they had seen a number of cases where people celebrated getting leave to remain and believed they were safe at last only to be told days or weeks later that a mistake had been made. Officials declined to say how many people had been affected by this error.

In one case an asylum seeker was jubilant after receiving a letter from Home Office officials stating: “Your claim for asylum has been successful and you have been granted refugee status and five years permission to remain in the UK.”

“I was so happy to receive this letter,” the asylum seeker said. “I and my family had been left in limbo for two years not knowing what was going to happen to me. But then a few weeks later I got another letter telling me the Home Office had made a mistake, that I hadn’t received refugee status after all and that I had to destroy the biometric residence permits they sent me.”

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jul/15/sheer-torment-home-office-apologises-after-asylum-approvals-retracted