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Asylum protest expected

The scale of the internal Labour revolt over the Asylum and Immigration Bill is expected to be greatly reduced as a result of concessions made by Home Secretary Jack Straw.

But the chairman of the all-party group on refugees, Neil Gerrard, continues to threaten to lead a vote against the bill when it returns to the Commons on Tuesday.

The government has limited the time MPs have to debate controversial stages of the bill at the report stage.

It has justified this by claiming Tory time-wasting tactics to prolong debate on NHS reforms have left less time to discuss asylum and immigration.

But the Conservatives have said the real reason is that the government wants to curb embarrassing criticism from its own benches.

A group of charities and organisations opposed to the reforms have handed in a petition to the government.

The group which includes the NSPCC, refugee and women's groups and anti-racist organisations says the bill will have "a devastating impact on women and children fleeing rape and other violence".

They also say it will deny child refugees the protection of the Children Act, ghettoise asylum seekers, whilst also forcing them to live below the poverty line and reduce their chances of getting a fair hearing.

Concessions to Labour rebels

Labour acted last week to head off the threat of a repeat of the embarrassing rebellion over its disability benefit cuts, when more than 60 of its MPs defied the party line.

Under the original proposals, asylum seekers would have received the bulk of benefits paid to them while their cases are heard in vouchers.

On top of this, adults would be given £1 a day in cash, while children would receive just 50p.

The home secretary informed MPs last week the government had decided to increase the percentage of benefits paid in cash so it would total £10 a week for both adults and children.

His other main concession to the rebels was to bring forward the fast-tracking of family cases by 12 months so it will start in April 2001.

Opposition to the bill grew during the Kosovo conflict, when the UK was also criticised by other countries for failing to accept its fair share of ethnic Albanian refugees.

'Genuine claimants penalised'

Mr Straw's reforms are intended to stop the flood of economic migrants who abuse the asylum system.

It is estimated they will make £150m savings from the £500m annual cost of the asylum process.

But Mr Gerrard said on Tuesday the reforms would have an indiscriminately harsh effect.

"Inevitably if you a system which is designed to deter it also penalises the people who are the genuine claimants," he said.

He said the government should drop the voucher system and concentrate instead on speeding up the processing of asylum claims.

"If we are able to make quick decisions then there is even less reason to go through a complicated system like this to support people," he said.

Claims processed faster

Mr Straw also wants to speed up the process, which currently offers a series of chances to appeal to unsuccessful applicants, and to stop rejected asylum-seekers from remaining in the country.

Currently, the Home Office says 20,000 asylum-seekers are living illegally in the UK. The Immigration Service Union suggests the real figure may be more than three times higher.

Mr Straw said the immigration service was working increasingly efficiently.

In May, it dealt with more than 900 cases a week - a 160% increase since December last year.

Further improvements would be made so that people did not have to spend long on benefits waiting for a decision on their asylum application, he added.

"We believe that we can hit the target for the vast majority of asylum seekers by April 2001 - which is a two month initial decision time and four months for appeal," he said.

"What I have promised, as far as family cases are concerned, is that we will get them through the system within two months from April 2000 - when we introduce this new asylum support system.

"In the very unlikely event of us not hitting that target we won't put those people on that system until we do."

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