Improvements found at Napier, but not to sleeping areas; Immigration routes for students working well
The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) on Thursday released two new inspection reports.
A new 34-page inspection report on Napier Barracks in Folkestone, Kent can be download here.
The former military barracks has been used as asylum accommodation since September 2020. Last year, the ICIBI found in an earlier inspection that conditions at the site were impoverished, dirty, run-down and unsuitable for long-term accommodation.
David Neal, the Independent Chief Inspector, found in his latest inspection that there has since been a lot of hard work to improve the site from the Home Office, subcontractors, and NGOs. Some areas of the barracks have been redecorated and refurbished, and overall management and oversight had improved.
In particular, the introduction of a 90-day maximum duration of stay for asylum seekers at Napier is recognised as a significant improvement. The report adds, however, that the Home Office was unable to provide data on the number of days residents had spent at Napier, meaning it was unclear to ICIBI inspectors how the Home Office assured compliance with the 90-day stay limit.
The Home Office did provide data showing that between June 2021 and February 2022, 964 asylum seekers had arrived at Napier and 1,010 had left.
On the negative side, Neal noted that sleeping areas at Napier remained a concern. He stated: "While minor improvements had been made to individual sleeping areas, I was disappointed that the overall condition of the dormitories had not improved. The residents and staff I spoke to, and stakeholders in their conversations with my inspectors, all raised the lack of privacy, the noise levels, and disruption to sleep as issues that affected everyone in the shared dormitories."
With regards to legal advice, the inspection report notes that the charity Migrant Help provides onsite advice and support at Napier. This includes providing asylum seekers with details of legal representatives, though Migrant Help staff said they were unable to recommend legal representatives. Stakeholders told ICIBI inspectors that there were concerns about the availability and quality of the legal representatives to whom residents were referred.
Residents at Napier with admissible claims have their asylum interviews conducted by the Home Office via video conferencing. Migrant Help staff estimated that around 15 to 20 interviews took place each month.
Also new from the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration last week was the 78-page An inspection of the immigration system as it relates to the higher education sector. The report can be downloaded here.
The inspection focuses on the following areas:
- the effectiveness of the immigration routes available to international students, staff and visiting academics;
- the burden of compliance for sponsors;
- the extent and quality of communication and engagement between the Home Office and the HE sector;
- the availability and usefulness of guidance for study and work applications;
- the quality and the value to the sector of the services provided by the Premium Customer Service Teams;
- continuous improvement, including the transition to digital status.
David Neal is largely positive in his findings, noting: "The inspection found that the Home Office was performing well overall and has developed good levels of engagement with representative bodies and higher education institutions. Collaborative working and consultation with external stakeholders has fed into the development of new routes, Simplification of the Immigration Rules and changes to associated guidance."
On the changes to the Rules, the report adds: "Simplification of the Immigration Rules and associated changes to guidance have also been the result of consultation and collaborative working with the Law Commission and external stakeholders. The changes have delivered clear improvements in the use of 'plain English' and guidance is considered to be good overall. However, the Home Office could do more in relation to the timeliness, volume and disjointed nature of guidance. Despite the objective of achieving 'simplification', guidance has, in some respects, become more complex and more spread out across multiple documents."
Concerns identified by the ICIBI inspection include the lack of a suitably 'premium' service offered by the Premium Customer Service Teams, and overly burdensome compliance requirements.
As the report notes, over 600,000 international students were enrolled in higher education institutions in the UK in 2021.