The report, aimed at legal practitioners and Home Office decision makers, explores the application of the ‘Internal Protection Alternative’ (IPA) concept in the UK asylum system, finding that it is regularly used as a fall-back option where the application has been deemed not to be credible in the first place, rather than as a protection alternative for someone with a well-founded fear of persecution in their home region. It was found in particular that insufficient consideration is sometimes given to the difficulties that may be faced by single women or members of other marginalised groups such as LGBT people in some parts of the world.
The report forms part of a wider European project run by ECRE called APAIPA, which compares the use of the IPA concept among several European countries.
We have also published a short blog on the issue, which can be found on our website: Vulnerable groups put at risk by use of the Internal Protection Alternative as a ‘fall-back’ option (http://www.asylumaid.org.uk/vulnerable-groups-put-risk-use-internal-protection-alternative-fall-back-option/)
Report: http://www.asylumaid.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Even-If…Asylum-Aid-2014.pdf
APAIPA: http://www.ecre.org/component/content/article/63-projects/326-apaipa.html]