Nationality and Borders Bill: overseas asylum processing
Updated 13 October 2023
© Crown copyright 2023
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-and-borders-bill-overseas-asylum-processing/nationality-and-borders-bill-overseas-asylum-processing
1. What does the Nationality and Borders Bill do in relation to overseas asylum processing?
The Nationality and Borders Bill amends Section 77 of the Nationality, Immigration, and Asylum Act 2002, in order to make it easier to remove someone with a pending asylum claim to a safe third country.
This means it is possible to remove someone to a safe third country whilst their asylum claim is pending, provided that removal is in line with the UK’s international obligations and the country an individual is being removed to meets the safety criteria set out in the Bill.
This supports the future object of enabling asylum claims to be processed outside the UK and in another country. The purpose of this is to manage the UK’s asylum intake and, alongside the suite of other measures included within the Bill, deter unwanted behaviours such as irregular migration and clandestine entry to the UK.
2. What is a ‘safe third country’?
“Safe” in this context means the removal of an individual would not breach the UK’s obligations under the Refugee Convention or under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), including that they will not be sent onwards to another country in contravention of the Refugee Convention or Article 3 of the ECHR.
The Refugee Convention protects eligible individuals from risk of removal to a country where they are likely to be persecuted (known as refoulement). Individuals will only be sent to a country to have their asylum claim processed if there is no risk of refoulement or onward refoulement (where an individual is removed from the first country of removal to another country where they are at risk of persecution).
Under Article 3 of the ECHR, no one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. This places an absolute bar on removing an individual from the UK where there are substantial grounds to believe that there is a real risk that the individual would experience such treatment in the country to which they are being removed.
The UK must not act in such a way which means a person’s life is at risk, or that they may suffer from torture or inhuman and degrading treatment. This government is clear we will not act in a way that is contrary to these fundamental human rights.