New asylum appeals body 'will fail to reduce backlog'

Lawyers have torn into the government's plans to create a new body of non-judges to hear asylum appeals - warning that the proposed Independent Immigration Appeals Authority will fail to reduce the immigration backlog.

Ahead of presenting the Immigration and Asylum Bill to parliament this week, home secretary Shabana Mahmood revealed that the new body will begin hearing cases next year and it will be staffed by 'professionally trained and independently appointed adjudicators - much like magistrates - who will have a broad range of skills and backgrounds’.

Enny Choudhury, legal director of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, said the new body will fail in its stated aim of reducing the backlog as 'politically appointed adjudicators ill-equipped to deal with these complex appeals will mean more delays, avoidable mistakes, onward appeals, further claims - at a cost to the public, and to those whose lives are caught in limbo until their claims are fully and fairly determined.'

The home secretary would be able to request a case be expedited if she considers it in the public interest. However, Choudhury said this demonstrated a 'fundamental misunderstanding' of the evidential basis of appeals and the legal aid crisis.

'In our experience, gathering expert evidence is often determinative of appeals - medico-legal reports can take six months or more due to capacity among experts. Similarly country expert reports, social work reports, language assessments all take time,' Choudhury said. Furthermore, finding a legal aid lawyer and securing funding for expert evidence can take months to secure. 

Migrants will no longer be able to appeal a rejected claim and bring further claims about new matters - they will have to lodge all their claims at the same time. Choudhury said this would cause significant detriment to victims of trafficking or torture without legal representation, who are unable to identify the grounds of their claim.

The Law Society has urged the government to scrap the appeals body while the Immigration Law Practitioners Association described the reforms as an 'attack on justice and the rule of law'.