This Centre Forum booklet by Alasdair Murray puts forward recommendations for how the Government can make the UK’s asylum system fairer and more efficient.  It argues that the current system is anachronistic in that it was designed to manage a large influx of asylum seekers at the turn of the 21st century.  Asylum numbers have fallen sharply since then and, while the overall debate about migration has intensified, hostility towards those seeking sanctuary has abatted.  The report argues that it is therefore a good time to reform the asylum process without the risk of undermining public confidence.

The paper makes 21 recommendations on institutional reform, detention, destitution, unaccompanied children, and the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), with the intention of bringing the system into line with today’s challenges rather than those of previous decades.

A ‘place of sanctuary? creating a fair and efficient asylum system’ is the final publication of a three part series aimed at setting a liberal agenda in UK immigration policy.  Centre Forum previously published ‘Migration: a liberal challenge (January 2014) and ‘The business case for immigration reform’ (December 2013).