BRITAIN: 10 years on, no asylum decision

Ten years after he first applied, Kassab Al-Rashid, a prominent member of Committee for Defence of Legitimate Rights, a pro-democracy body suppressed by the Saudi monarchy, is still waiting for a decision on his initial application for asylum in Britain. His continued situation was investigated by the Ombudsman earlier this year. Al-Rashid is suffering under a decision made by the Home Office on September 11, 2001, to defer all Saudi asylum applications until "the impact of the 9/11 attacks is assessed". Al-Rashid has been granted indefinate leave to stay, but has no formal status. MP for Putney, Tony Colman, told parliament on February 11, that: "Mr Al-Rashid's Home Office file resembles in bulk the collected works of Shakespeare. He has been investigated to within an inch of his life, as is clean as a whistle. Yet, 10 years on, my constituent has neither asylum not nationality."

From Green Left Weekly, June 8, 2005.

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From GLW issue 629