UK Coalition Against Poverty

The Joint Commission on Human Rights published its Tenth Report for the 2006-2007 session on the treatment of asylum seekers. The report considers how asylum seekers are forced into destitution through current Government policies, and makes some radical recommendations, particularly regarding the right to work for asylum seekers. The report states that “In the Committee’s view, the current system is overly complex, poorly administered, offers inadequate information and advice to ensure that people receive the support to which they are entitled and in some cases denies any support at all to those who are destitute […] In the light of the evidence presented, the Committee concludes that by refusing permission for asylum seekers to work and operating a system of support which results in widespread destitution, the Government’s treatment of asylum seekers in a number of cases reaches the Article 3 ECHR threshold of inhuman and degrading treatment”.

At the UK Coalition Against Poverty we welcome this report. We believe that enforced destitution as a policy does not work, and that it serves to breach the human rights of people who have already experienced severe forms of mistreatment, persecution and torture in fleeing their homeland.

Click here to see a full copy of the report.

Asylum seekers cannot work unless they are still waiting for an initial decision on their application after 12 months, and they receive approximately one third less support than UK citizens on Income Support. Financial support for asylum seekers comes direct from the National Asylum Support Service (NASS), and once an application has been refused, and the appeal dismissed, state support is normally withdrawn.

The severe destitution that many asylum seekers face has been well reported in recent research and on the ground by people who work with asylum seekers. Many of the stories that have been told are shocking, and we see visions of people who have no money, no connections and nowhere to go: literally desperate, homeless and hungry.

At the UK Coalition Against Poverty, we believe that: