"Last-minute" asylum claims are often born of fear, not an attempt to game the system
3 min read
When the Home Secretary claims that asylum seekers are making “vexatious, last-minute claims”, I feel compelled to respond from my own experience.
I know firsthand how misleading, and dangerous, this narrative is.
When I first arrived in the UK, I did not disclose that I am a survivor of torture. Not because my story isn’t true, not because I wanted to delay anything, but because I did not feel safe.
The Home Office process was cold, intimidating and hostile. The questions they asked me were not the ones that would have allowed me to share the truth of why I had come. I was scared. I was worried that if I disclosed too much, that information might somehow make its way back to my home country – to the very people who had tortured me. So, I stayed silent.
As a result, I was placed in an immigration detention centre. Imagine that, fleeing torture and violence only to be locked up in a place that looks and feels like a prison. It was only later, when I met a solicitor, that I finally opened up. With proper legal advice and reassurance that my disclosures would remain confidential, I could finally share the real reason I was seeking protection.
This is the reality for so many asylum seekers. The system is impossibly complex to navigate alone. It is only when you have proper legal support that the law begins to make sense, and you understand how to present your case. Until then, people are left in the dark – confused, fearful and retraumatised by hostile treatment.
This is why disclosures often come “late”. It is not because they are fabricated or opportunistic. It is because trauma silences people. Because mistrust silences people. Because fear silences people. And because all too often the Home Office fails to ask the right questions, or to provide the safe, compassionate environment in which people can truly speak.
To dismiss these late disclosures as “making a mockery” of the system is not only wrong, but also dangerous. It feeds into a hostile narrative that portrays asylum seekers as liars or cheats. And we know where such rhetoric leads. Hotels housing has been attacked. Islamophobia is rising. Racism is intensifying. When our leaders use dehumanising language, they give permission to others to act on hate.
Our asylum system should be about truth, dignity and safety. But truth cannot come out where fear dominates. Dignity cannot be preserved in detention. And safety cannot be felt when those in power use their platforms to stigmatise the vulnerable.
If the Government truly cares about protecting people and upholding justice, it should begin with compassion. It must create a system where people are giving access to proper legal advice from the outset, where questions are asked in a humane way, and where survivors of torture and trauma are met with understanding rather than suspicion.
The real “mockery” is not people disclosing too late. The real mockery is a system that shuts people down before they have had the chance to speak. Until this changes, last-minute disclosures will continue. Not because they are false, but because they are the only way people like me can finally be hard.
Kolbassia Haoussou is Director of Survivor Leadership and Influencing at Freedom from Torture
