'asylum seekers will continue to face destitution and homelessness'

'asylum seekers will continue to face destitution and homelessness'

Vulnerable face new heartbreak

Raekha Prasad
Wednesday July 9, 2003
The Guardian

Refugee groups fear that hundreds of asylum seekers will continue to face destitution and homelessness without access to state support, despite a high court ruling forcing the government to change the policy that has left them penniless.
The groups are concerned that they will be left in the "heartbreaking" position of having to tell asylum seekers that they must leave emergency accommodation provided by the groups themselves.

As part of the government's drive to halve asylum seeker numbers by September, the Home Office has this week begun a "push" to decide claims for support by a group of more than 2,000. Their cases were suspended - and they were placed in emergency accommodation, funded by the Home Office - until the outcome of a legal challenge to the policy of refusing benefits to those who failed to apply for asylum within a "reasonable time" after arrival in Britain.

A high court judge ruled in February that the initial decision-making process that led to six asylum seekers being refused assistance was "flawed". The Home Office subsequently undertook to improve the way it made decisions.

From this week, some 20 asylum seekers a day from the backlog are to be called for interview to decide whether they will be granted support. The interviews are being held at Platinum House, an immigration service office near Gatwick airport, and the asylum seekers are being told to take their belongings.

"All the indications from the government are that it will deny support to most of these desperate individuals," says Margaret Lally, acting chief executive of the Refugee Council.

Charities providing emergency housing say they have yet to be told whether those refused housing or benefits are to be given an immediate decision, or returned to their accommodation where agencies will have to break the news or explain the meaning of an official letter - as has happened already in some cases dealt with ahead of the Home Office push.

"It's heartbreaking having to tell these incredibly vulnerable people that we cannot help them in any way," Lally says. "No charity can, nor should, fill in for state failure of this magnitude."

Sandy Buchan, chief executive of Refugee Action, says refusals will lead to the charity having to inform landlords that the Home Office will no longer pay the rent. "If the Home Office says it's unlawful to go on paying someone, then we have to follow that. We can't pick up cases of those who are destitute. It's very difficult, but how on earth can we raise money for something that should be a government responsibility - and why should we?"

Refusals of support will lead to "round two" in challenging the policy, says Buchan. "We'll do as we did before and advise people to seek to challenge the decisions."

The task raises further questions about the role charities undertake with government grants and whether it is undermining their aims.

Susan Fawcus, operations manager for Dover Migrant Helpline, another charity providing emergency accommodation, says: "It's very difficult. We're a registered charity and our mission statement is to assist refugees, but we also are grant funded by the Home Office. We're having to deliver bad news to people and do everything we can to help clients along the way within the terms of our grant agreement.

A Home Office spokeswoman says the arrangements about how decisions are to be given to asylum seekers, and what will happen to those refused, are "still being finalised". Details will available by the end of the week.

Source: Guardian Newspaper