UK law requires that a person be physically present in the UK or at its border to make an asylum claim. Under section 14 of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, a person may make an asylum claim only in “designated places”, which includes ports.1

While a person who arrives in the UK without leave to enter applies for asylum, they are not granted leave to enter or remain as such, but they are permitted to physically enter the UK’s territory temporarily under what is known as “immigration bail”, so that it can be determined whether their claim for asylum is admissible and, if it is, in order that their application for asylum can be decided.

The UK is a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, which prohibits returning a refugee to a territory where their life or freedom would be threatened. Section 77 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 provides that, while a person’s claim for asylum is pending, they may not be removed from the United Kingdom except to a country where they will not face persecution or a contravention of their rights under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and from where they will not be sent to another country where this would result in them facing persecution or a contravention of their Article 3 rights.2

Additionally, Sections 80B and 80C of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 give the Secretary of State a discretionary power to refuse to consider the asylum claims of people who sought, or could reasonably have been expected to have sought protection in a “safe third country” they travelled through.3 Such people could be removed to a country designated as “safe” under Section 77 of the same Act.

In practice, however, the UK can only remove an asylum seeker to a country designated as “safe” if it has an agreement with such a country to do so. In the absence of large-scale agreements, the UK in practice admits the majority of applicants to the asylum system. Paragraph 328 of the Immigration Rules requires that all asylum applications admitted into the asylum process be determined by the Secretary of State in accordance with the Refugee Convention and the Immigration Rules.4

In terms of allowing access to the asylum system, the UK does not directly differentiate between applicants on the basis of nationality, age, gender, or other personal characteristics. However, the exercise of the power to declare a person's asylum claim inadmissible where they had the opportunity to claim asylum in a safe third country prior to arriving in the UK is likely to impact some groups of applicants more than others, as people from certain demographic groups are more likely to enter the UK via third countries than others.

• 1Nationality and Borders Act 2022, Section 14. Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/36/section/14.
• 2Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, Section 77. Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/41/section/77.
• 3Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, Part 4A. Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/41/part/4A.
• 4Immigration Rules, Part 11: Asylum. Available at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-part-11-asylum.