The Treatment of Asylum Seekers: A Matter of Humanity

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The Treatment of Asylum Seekers: A Matter of Humanity

Asylum Seekers Are Left to Starve

The treatment of thousands of human beings by the British government and its authorities as illegal and unworthy of rights, is a matter of deep concern to the working class and people and presents itself as a question of the rights of all.

After fleeing persecution in other countries, people in this awful predicament are coming to Britain to seek refuge, with the projected thinking that Britain will provide the safety from the inhumane treatment of the country they are fleeing. This illusion is shattered on entering the asylum, where immediate detention is the norm in places such as Campsfield. And now acknowledged by an independent inquiry, thousands of people are living on the streets of Britain in abject poverty. Senior lawyers describe this travesty as government policy, where they are trying to force people who can’t go back to their own countries. There are 280,000 people living in poverty in Britain after having their leave to remain in Britain refused. Many sleep rough with no shelter and few have access to healthcare, both of these being inviolable human rights. The inquiry said that these people have been "failed" by the place where they thought they would be safe.

In an impassioned plea to the Independent Asylum Commission, Iranian Afshin Azizian, whose asylum case is still undecided after 12 years, said: "Thousands and thousands of asylum seekers have been made destitute. I ask those in the Home Office to think, if you were to spend one day in my shoes how would you like to be treated? We never had much of a voice until recently. If you don't have a piece of paper from the Home Office you're not considered human. How can you call yourselves civilised?"

The treatment of people under the "Asylum Laws" can be seen as anti-human and racist, not only making someone poor and destitute but also actually treating someone as illegal. To treat someone as illegal is to deny them being human beings. So what is the pretext for such treatment?

The pretext is such that it is posing the question as one of "defending our way of life" and that these people should be seen as outsiders who threaten the security and livelihoods of the rest of the people. People who come to this country must be seen as part of the British working class and people and not as the "enemy within". The hysteria that is created as a pretext about the threat of terrorism which is part and parcel of illegalising asylum seekers must be rejected.

The rights of all must be defended and a broad movement developed to do so and reject the racist and inhuman policy of the government. It is unacceptable that basic human rights are violated in any shape or form, let alone as a norm of policy. The struggles of the working class and people in defence of their livelihoods and against the violation of their own rights must be as one with the struggle to uphold the principle that no one is illegal.

For the people to succeed in building a new future for Britain, the working class and people must see that those who are being alienated on grounds of nationality and their class are part of the society, and part of the working class and people who must defend the rights of all.

Thousands of people are forced to spend years living in abject poverty on the streets of Britain's cities after fleeing persecution in their own countries, an independent asylum inquiry has heard. The destitute have no access to help from the state as they have not been granted asylum.

Senior lawyers, doctors and immigration officials even claim such destitution is, in effect, now being used by the government as policy, in an attempt to force desperate people out of the country.

There are at least 280,000 people living in poverty in Britain after having their leave to remain refused. Some of them are appealing those decisions. Some just go completely underground, taking their chances on the streets of the Britain with no money or shelter.

Living on the margins, these outcasts have been "failed" by the place where they thought they would be safe, the inquiry was told. Many sleep rough; few have access to the healthcare that UN legislation says they have a right to. Sir John Waite, a former High Court judge and chair of the Independent Asylum Commission that will report to the government next year, said: "I think it's a serious omission that we haven't looked earlier at this very pressing problem. There is a significant element of the population subsisting while awaiting hearings or asylum claims, especially after rejection. And some of them are suffering serious hardship either because they don't understand the system or because the system fails them."

The Commission met last week in Manchester to hear evidence from immigration experts as well as direct testimonies from those who had experienced the struggle of surviving in the Britain first-hand. They described the extremes of poverty they suffered while living in fear of returning to their countries of origin.

Financial support is cut off after 21 days for those without children whose asylum case has been rejected. Immigration experts have called this a "deliberate tool" to rush people out of the country, often before enough evidence has been collated to ensure the safety of their return.

Sandy Buchan, chief executive of Refugee Action, condemned the country's treatment of failed asylum seekers: "It seems the Government is using destitution as an instrument of policy. It's no accident. It's very much a deliberate tool of government. It's morally unacceptable to force people into utter destitution, and the most desperate and degrading circumstances when people are frightened of what awaits them when they return home.

"Destitution is an unworkable policy that has completely failed to deliver on its objectives," he added. "It means the Government loses contact with asylum seekers. Each day they are destitute, the chances of return become more remote."

Ruth Heatley, an immigration solicitor, said that part of the problem was in the phasing out of Exceptional Leave to Remain, a policy that used to grant temporary residency to those whose safety in their home country was still in question. In 2002, one in four initial asylum cases was granted this temporary permission; by 2005 this had been reduced to just one in ten.

"This is wrong and inhumane, and the policy doesn't work: people would rather face destitution than persecution," she said.

Dr Angela Burnett, who was at the hearing representing Medact, which campaigns to improve health worldwide, said healthcare provision for many asylum seekers was so poor that it broke UN conventions.

"Torture survivors are being denied access to healthcare due to an inability to pay. This contravenes the UN Convention Against Torture, ratified by the UK, which obliges states to provide as full a rehabilitation as possible to torture survivors," she said, adding that the difficulty of understanding a labyrinthine set of regulations meant that even those eligible for healthcare missed out.

The Independent Asylum Commission is conducting a nationwide review of the UK asylum system and will present a report to the government in 2008. The hearings are opportunities for Commissioners to hear testimony directly from everyone concerned with or by the UK asylum system: from asylum seekers and refugees, those who work with and for them, the civil servants implementing the system, and those living in communities where asylum seekers live. Last week's hearing in Manchester was the sixth of seven nationwide hearings and was specifically aimed at tackling the issue of destitution amongst asylum seekers and refugees. There is to be a national hearing in London on November 29, 2007.

(sources: The Independent,: 22 October 2007; Independent Asylum Commission)