Insecurity and Asylum Seeker Identity

Abstract

This question was put to me by Mark, an asylum seeker from Burundi who had a long and frustrating experience seeking asylum in the UK. He possessed no identification documents. The UK did not accept his testimony as credible because the immigration officer to whom he had given his testimony did not believe he was from Burundi. Because of the discrepancy in his country of origin he could not be deported, yet his asylum application was not successful. He found himself in limbo, neither with legal status nor without status from 2002 until 2011 when I met him. He had been detained a number of separate times in the UK and processed for deportation. However, his deportation was never carried out successfully, resulting each time in his release from detention but no resolution to his pending asylum application. Mark’s journey to seek asylum indeed appeared to be never-ending, despite reaching a country where he was safe. He was afforded little freedom of movement in the UK as he remained monitored by the immigration authorities and was required to register at a local office on a weekly basis. He did not have permission to work and relied on the minimal support designed to protect non-deportable failed asylum seekers from absolute destitution. The nature of his journey from his home country left Mark unable to prove his identity. The process Mark went through to seek asylum ultimately undermined his asylum claim.