Unsafe Return Refoulement of Congolese Asylum Seekers

This report has been prepared in response to a growing concern for the plight of Congolese nationals who have sought asylum in the UK, whose appeals have been refused and who have been forcibly removed to the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 2006 and 2011.

During this period, first hand reports which were received from nine people who had been
living in the Tees Valley area alleged inhuman and degrading treatment at the hands of the
Congolese authorities. These were clients of Justice First which was set up in 2006 to work
with people in Tees Valley whose asylum appeals had been refused.

As the United Kingdom has no monitoring mechanism in place to test the UKBA hypothesis
of safety on return for rejected asylum seekers, the post return experience of Justice First
clients began to be documented. During the compilation of this report efforts have been made to collate relevant information from other civil society groups that have monitored the post return experience of Congolese returnees. The documented cases include that of children.

‘Unsafe Return’ provides a credible account of the current situation of fifteen out of
seventeen refused asylum seekers who were removed to DRC between 2006 and 2011 and
evidence of serious risk and actual harm to them. It includes statements from independent
witnesses which corroborate aspects of the accounts provided by these fifteen asylum seekers.
This report and the research for it have been funded by voluntary contributions.