Syrian asylum seekers call on Home Office to end its 'cruel' pause on decisions

Syrian asylum seekers, left in limbo after the home secretary said the government was pausing their claims, have called the decision "cruel" and urged officials to resume processing their cases.

- Diane Taylor

More than 700 refugee organisations including Care4Calais and Refugee Action along with many Syrian groups in Britain have called on the home secretary to resume processing Syrian claims and have expressed "deep concern and opposition" to the pause on the 6,500 of these claims currently in the system, the Independent has reported.

Last week Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, told MPs: "Let's be clear, most of the claims, many of the claims that have been made, have been made against the Assad regime for asylum, which is clearly not in place. It would therefore not be appropriate to be granting asylum decisions on those cases in the current circumstances."

She added that the situation was "very unstable at the moment" and the government was monitoring it.