But they have been refused - accept it and go home!

This is the response I have had from everyone I have spoken to about this. Even the most sympathetic people, people who work with asylum seekers, people who protect asylum seekers. This is what makes my point of view so controversial, as once an asylum decision has been made by the Borders Agency it is assumed that the decision ought to be accepted and the applicant ought to return to their home country.

I would absolutely agree with this course of action but unfortunately the Borders Agency have not, by any means, been making fair decisions on asylum applications. In 2006 they were given the target of 6 months to make a decision and in many cases the pressure of targets led to decisions being made which did not take into account all the evidence presented or did not truly take into account the fact that human lives were being dealt with. This meant that blanket stereotypes were used to make decisions rather than the story of the person presenting their application. Individual need was not taken into consideration. People were no longer treated like people. The person about whom I wrote to the Home Secretary was refused because his solicitor failed to send the translation of death threats he had received in time to be considered. His claim was refused. And yet you say he ought to accept it and go home.

It is clear that the decisions which have been made in the last 6 or so years have been flawed, mainly because they have been driven less by the cause of humanitarian protection and more by targets and this belief is upheld by the Home Office's own inspection into the immigration system. This means that people have a right to appeal, and when they appeal they are no longer supported as true asylum seekers but instead as Section 4. This is when they essentially become illegal immigrants. All because the Home Office hasn't been doing its job very well.

Of the myriad people I know who are refused asylum seekers and therefore trapped in the Section 4 loophole not one of them wants to go home. Yet when you speak to them about their lives they tell you they miss their families terribly or they are lonely and wish they were around more people who spoke their language, or simply that they are homesick. So when the Home Office gives them the opportunity to go home don't you think they would take it if they could? Wouldn't that be preferable to this life where they are nothing and are treated like pariahs? Unless, of course, they are genuinely too afraid to return.