The Guardian: Britain is rapidly processing asylum requests from tens of thousands of Iranians and Iraqis

The Guardian reports in an exclusive article, citing a leaked letter, that the UK Home Office is set to rapidly address the backlog of over 20,000 Iraqi and Iranian asylum seekers. Previously, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised that the government would handle over 90,000 asylum applications since June of last year. The report states that Iranian and Iraqi asylum seekers are required to fill out detailed questionnaires in English before a brief interview with officials. According to The Guardian, if a positive decision is made based on the existing evidence, an interview may not be necessary, and if the applicant does not comply with this process, their application will be rejected. In a similar move in February of this year, 12,000 asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Syria, Yemen, and Libya were asked to complete 11-page questionnaires in detail or risk having their asylum applications rejected. UK officials told The Guardian that many questionnaires from asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Syria, Yemen, and Libya were not filled out correctly, forcing responsible officials to conduct lengthy interviews. Mr. Sunak has declared addressing the tens of thousands of asylum requests as one of his main priorities. He committed last year to resolving the issue of over 92,600 unresolved asylum cases by the end of this year. According to The Guardian, at the end of last year, out of a total of 132,000 cases, 11,698 were related to Iranian asylum seekers and 8,909 to Iraqi asylum seekers. The report states that the acceptance rate for Iranian applicants is 80% and for Iraqi applicants, it is 54%. The Guardian wrote that in the leaked letter, it was mentioned that applicants have a total of 30 working days to fill out the questionnaire in English, and if they do not follow the asylum process without a valid explanation and do not attend the interview, their asylum request may be rejected. The Sunak government's forecast for the number of incoming asylum seekers to the UK in 2023 has been discussed, with the Home Secretary stating that Rwanda is safe for accepting migrants.