The Deputy Prime Minister and Sheffield Hallam MP Nick Clegg has said he would be concerned if the UK did not monitor what happened to refused asylum seekers after they have been deported. He was commenting during a meeting with City of Sanctuary and other refugee support organisations in Sheffield.
Mr Clegg said he would be interested to see an upcoming report about the alleged mistreatment of a number of asylum seekers returned to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Responding to earlier concerns about monitoring the Immigration Minister Damien Green wrote that the UK was ‘under no obligation to monitor the treatment of individual failed asylum seekers who return to their country of origin.’ He added that this should not be interpreted as disinterest and if the UK Border Agency received specific allegations of ill-treatment they would be investigated by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

This is the second time Mr Clegg has met the group since the Coalition was formed and he repeated his request for further research into examples of independent asylum processing systems in use in other countries. He also expressed frustration at what he sees as the public’s failure to recognise the positive achievements of the Coalition, notably on ending large scale detention of children.