To browse Academia. It is only in the last decade, however, with the passage of the Asylum and Immigration Appeal Act and the Human Rights Act, that these two Conventions have became part of British law.
This paper begins by exploring the impact of the incorporation of the Convention and then moves on to look at the hopes that are now pinned on the Human Rights Act. It concludes by considering the actual and potential impact of these two Conventions on asylum policy and practice since their incorporation into British law and explores the possible conflict between the Conventions and recent British legislation on asylum. In doing so it highlights the need to develop a deeper and contextualised understanding of current preoccupations with the issue of asylum and refuge in Britain and other European societies.
In September photographs of the body of a young Syrian boy, who had drowned attempting to make the crossing by boat from Turkey to Greece, were published in newspapers around the world. These images led to a rise in public and political sympathy and support for refugees in many EU countries. In this paper, I begin by discussing changes in UK immigration and asylum policy over the past 30 years and highlighting the ways in which successive governments have introduced legislation that has created a 'hostile environment' designed to deter asylum seekers from entering the UK and to encourage failed asylum seekers to leave the UK.
Such policies have restricted the civil and social rights of asylum seekers whilst simultaneously the UK government has focused upon policies for the integration of those granted refugee status only. This paper will report on the findings from interviews conducted with 19 refugees and asylum seekers living in Wales and the ways they spoke about their rights in the UK.
Each of the interviewees had been living in the UK between one month and twelve years at the time of interview. The data are taken from a wider project focusing on refugee and asylum seeker integration in Wales. I show how policies introduced in recent years have led to restrictions on the day-today lives of asylum seekers in Wales and their ability to integrate, focusing particularly on the accommodation provided to asylum seekers via the current dispersal system and the barriers faced in accessing education.
