Home Office mistreatment of medical evidence of torture must end
Our new 'Proving Torture' report published today reveals how Home Office asylum caseworkers disregard or mistreat expert medical evidence of torture and make clinical judgements about survivors’ injuries that they are not qualified to make.
This goes against a clear Home Office policy and leaves exceptionally vulnerable people terrified of being returned to face further torture.
The report analysed findings from 50 cases and found that in 76% of those where the final outcome is known, asylum was granted following a successful legal appeal in the courts, compared with an average grant rate for asylum appeals of just 30%. This indicates a serious problem with Home Office handling of asylum claims by torture survivors requiring correction via a judge in a specialist immigration Tribunal, at significant cost to UK taxpayers.
The research also found that in 74% of the cases asylum caseworkers, without any clinical qualifications, often replace the expert opinion of a medical doctor with their own speculation about clinical matters. This poor practice directly contravenes the Home Office’s own policy on how to handle expert medical evidence of torture.
Susan Munroe, Chief Executive of Freedom from Torture, said:
“For many survivors of torture in the UK asylum system, proving what has been done to them is becoming near impossible, even when they present extensive expert medical evidence of torture.
The medical evidence is produced by independent, specialist doctors and our research clearly shows this is being undermined, mistreated or even dismissed altogether by asylum caseworkers, often because they prefer to make their own non-qualified judgements on clinical matters.
Most of the bad practice revealed in our research clearly contravenes Home Office policy guidance for asylum caseworkers on the correct treatment of medical evidence of torture. The Home Office has an excellent training programme to help caseworkers implement this policy correctly but has never rolled it out.
The Home Office should take urgent action to improve decision-making in asylum cases involving torture claims, by rolling out to all asylum caseworkers its full day training module on assessing medical evidence in torture cases.”
The consequences of being disbelieved and having their medical evidence mishandled are potentially catastrophic for torture survivors. They know that when the wrong decision is made, they could be forced to return to their torturers. Harrowing legal appeals also prolong the torture survivor’s psychological trauma which impedes their chances of rehabilitation and social integration in the UK.
