Breaking Down the Barriers: A Report on the Conduct of Asylum Interviews at Ports

This research project was formulated following the publication of the Asylum and Immigration Bill in 1995 and associated Social Security Regulations. It set out to examine how asylum applicants would be served by immigration officers and legal representatives when an increased number of substantive asylum interviews were held at ports; how best those in need of protection could be assisted to present their claim; and why relations between legal representatives and Immigration Service staff at ports were seen as problematic and how these could be improved.During the course of this research, legal representatives, asylum applicants, Immigration Service staff and other Home Office officials, have contributed to the development of these objectives and the organisation of the project