45 Americans sought asylum in UK

United Kingdom, January 26: According to the latest figures revealed by the UK Border Agency, nearly 45 Americans submitted applications for asylum in the UK in the four-year period from 2004-2008.

These figures point towards the harrowing conditions prevailing in the United States which contradict its position of being a free land providing equal opportunities to all irrespective of the creed, color or religion.

As per the statistics made available by the Home Office under the Freedom of Information Act, the increasing number of Americans sought asylum in the UK because they could not get back to the US fearing persecution.

According to a US government source, among the Americans seeking asylum, majority of them were political refugees who had been subjected to discrimination under the George Bush administration.

Not just Americans, even Canadians are also approaching the UK Border Agency for gaining asylum in the United Kingdom. The official figures show that nearly 15 Canadians forwarded their applications seeking asylum in the UK.

And most of such asylum seekers were in the age group between 18 years and 59 years barring a few Americans aged above 60 years.

However, all such applications got rejected by the UK immigration authorities. But, the UK Border Agency did not revealed any reason for rejections of their applications. As a result, a few asylum seekers from America went forward to pled their individual cases online.

Moreover, many experts in the field of US and Canada immigration, including Linda Schuster, are a bit confused since they feel that the process of applying for a UK work visa is quite simple and any American or a Canadian can simply renew and then forward an application for gaining a right to stay in the UK. Linda Schuster is an asylum expert on sociology at City University, London.

There have been few lucky Americans who were successful in getting asylum in countries other than the UK.