Challenging Myths
So-called asylum seekers who, in reality, seek no more than access to our welfare system
Leader comment, Sunday Express, 2 May 2004
Real Lives
Research commissioned by the Home Office found that for those asylum seekers who can choose a destination, previous knowledge of welfare provision does not strongly influence their choice.
Asylum seekers cannot claim mainstream welfare benefits. If destitute, they can apply to the National Asylum Support Service (NASS), the Government department responsible for destitute asylum applicants, for basic food and shelter. A single adult is eligible for £38.96 a week, equivalent to 70% of basic income support. In December 2003, around 80,000 asylum seekers were receiving Home Office support, compared with 15.5 million Britons on benefits (excluding retirement pensions), meaning that 0.5% of those claiming government support were asylum seekers. From January 2003 to June 2004, government policy denied even this basic support (under Section 55 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002) to thousands of asylum seekers. The Government was forced to reinstate support, after an appeal court judge found the policy in breach of asylum seekers' human rights. The Home Secretary is likely to appeal against the Court's decision. A joint study by Oxfam and the Refugee Council (2002) showed how the asylum system institutionalises poverty. The report revealed that 85% experience hunger, 95% cannot afford to buy clothes or shoes and 80% are not able to maintain good health. Many asylum seekers do not receive the basic support they may be entitled to, because the system is badly designed, extremely bureaucratic and poorly run.
The UK takes more than its fair share of refugees and asylum seekers
Real Lives
The UK, one of the richest countries in the world, hosts less than 3 per cent of the world's total refugee population.
Global share: If you consider global refugee and asylum-seeking populations in relation to the host country's overall size, population and wealth, the UK ranks 32nd in the world. The number of asylum applications the UK received in 2002 represented about 0.01 per cent of the global refugee population and about 0.03 per cent of the refugee population in Europe. However, a recent MORI poll revealed that on average the British public believes that 23 per cent of the worlds refugees and asylum seekers are in the UK, more than ten times the actual figure. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR), there were almost 19.8 million people of concern to the agency worldwide as of 1 January 2002, of which over 12 million were refugees and 940,800 were asylum seekers. Approximately one in every 300 people on earth is a refugee. The world's poorest countries take responsibility for the vast majority of refugees. Nearly two thirds of all refugees are hosted in the Middle East and in Africa. Taking the greatest burden are Iran, Burundi and Guinea. Guinea, a country with a population of 7 million, is currently home to 3 million Sierra Leonean and 150,000 Liberian refugees. Indeed, monthly asylum figures in countries such as Tanzania and Pakistan are comparable to the total annual asylum application statistics of some European countries.
Asylum seekers come to the UK to take advantage of our generous benefits system
Real Lives
Single asylum seekers in the UK have to survive on £37.77 a week 30p below the poverty line while couples without children and single adults under 25 receive less than £30 a week each.
There are several EU countries, including Ireland, Belgium and Denmark, which offer more financial support than the UK does. A recent report for the European Commission concluded that push factors such as war and repression far outweigh pull factors such as economic hardship or Europe's benefits systems in determining why people leave their home countries to seek asylum in the EU.
Asylum seekers threaten to engulf Britain in imported epidemics
Real Lives
Sexually-transmitted infections such as syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhea are spreading rapidly throughout Britain and the situation has been described by the parliamentary select committee on sexual health as a crisis. It is this that poses a real threat to public health, not the relatively small number of HIV-positive people who come to the UK.
Syphilis infections rose by a staggering 63% between 2001 and 2002, according to recent figures from the Health Protection Agency (HPA). The sexual health of the nation is in decline with potentially serious consequences for infertility in young women and rising costs for the NHS in treating the long-term effects of sexually-transmitted infections.
HIV and TB are both global epidemics which are inevitably going to have an impact on the UK and every other country. 2003 marks the 10th anniversary of TB being declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO). One third of the world's population - nearly two billion people - is infected with TB. Ten million people a year develop the active disease. Two million die. There were 7,000 cases of TB reported in the UK in 2,000. In 1950 there were 50,000, which fell to all-time low of 5,745 in 1987. This has since risen as part of worldwide resurgence. About half of all TB in Britain occurs in British people born in the UK. Although anyone can get TB, it is more likely to affect those living in poor conditions or on poor diets, so it is more likely to affect homeless people or refugees. Rather than discriminate against these vulnerable people, we need to raise awareness of TB so more cases are diagnosed. TB is treatable and can be contained if diagnosed and treated.
Is the Government doing enough to control and monitor asylum seekers entering the UK?
The UK asylum and immigration system is already stringently controlled. In the past three years, the Government has introduced a stream of tough legislation designed to tackle potential criminal activity and security threats. The 2002 Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act included measures to introduce high-tech physical recognition equipment to identify those who might pose a security threat. The Act also introduced induction centres for newly-arrived asylum seekers and imposed tough new reporting and residence restrictions. It also included measures to remove the right to appeal in certain circumstances and to fast-track removal from the UK.
In addition, the 2004 Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc) Act created new offences, punishable by jail terms, for those found to be entering the UK without travel documents or failing to co-operate with removal. It also introduced electronic monitoring of persons subject to immigration control. The new 2005 Immigration Asylum and Nationality Bill also contains measures to further strengthen border security and detect or deter illegal immigration.
While Refugee Action recognises that the Government has a duty to control UK borders, we believe such measures must be accompanied by safeguards to ensure that refugees fleeing persecution are not prevented from reaching the UK, thus rendering meaningless the protection afforded them by the UN Convention. Recent legislation threatens to criminalise asylum seekers, who have done nothing wrong in seeking safety here. Toughening-up an already punitive system with the intention of deterring and removing many more people must not be achieved at the cost of jeopardising their right to a full and fair hearing of their case.
Those who call for ever more stringent controls risk perpetuating a culture of fear and suspicion towards asylum seekers, refugees and those who work with them. At a time when the rights and freedoms of all are under threat, it is more vital than ever before that we stand up for those fleeing terror and persecution.
Source: UNCHR
Britain Tops the Asylum League
, Daily Express, 1 March 2002
Real Lives
In 2001 the total number of people who applied for asylum was 88,300. This compares to 98,900 in 2000 and represents an 11% decrease. Of the industrialised countries Germany, with 88,363 applications in 2001 is the top destination for asylum seekers, followed by the UK and USA (86,394).
Per capita, the UK, received far few asylum applications in 2001 than most other western European countries. The UK ranked tenth after Austria, Norway, Switzerland, Belgium, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands and Luxembourg.
The number of asylum seekers the UK accepted is only 0.5% of its population.
Although the Home Office statistics for the first half of 2002 showed a slight increase in asylum applications in comparison to the same period for 2001, this small increase can be explained by world events:
- In the first quarter of 2002 the number of applications from Zimbabweans almost doubled reaching the highest ever number of applications (1,495) and the number of applications from Iraq nationals increased by 55 per cent.
- Looking at the wider picture, in the 1990s Germany received the highest number of asylum applications within the European Union (EU): just under two million applied for asylum in Germany between 1990 to 2000 - almost half of the EU total. The UK was second but with only 25 per cent of Germany's total (454,445 asylum applications between 1990 - 2000).
- Britain tends to receive asylum seekers from countries which have traditional links to the UK: in 2001 the UK received 5,465 applications from Sri Lanka - 3,500 more than any other country in Western Europe. Similarly, nearly three times as many Algerians applied for asylum in France as in the UK.
- The chance of being accepted as a refugee also varies hugely across host countries with some nationalities more likely to be accepted in one country than another. For example, in 1996, 82% of Tamils from Sri Lanka claiming asylum in Canada were admitted; the corresponding figure for the UK was only 0.2%.
UK confirmed as asylum capital
, Daily Mail, 28 February 2002
Real Lives
Although they lack the wealth and stability that the UK enjoys, it is developing countries, such as Pakistan (3,347,717 refugees and asylum seekers), which continue to host the majority of the world's refugees.
In Africa alone, there are 8 million refugees and many millions more who are displaced within their own countries. Guinea, a country with a population of 7 million, is currently home to 3 million Sierra Leonean and 150,000 Liberian refugees.
Monthly asylum figures in countries such as Tanzania and Pakistan are comparable to the annual asylum application statistics of some European countries.
The UK hosts just over 3 refugees per 1,000 inhabitants and its average GDP per capita is 22,550. Kenya hosts over 7 refugees per 1,000 inhabitants and has an average GDP per capita of 595.
I really wonder how governments can justify spending millions on reinforcing borders, on all kinds of deterrence measures, on custody and detention centres, on all these costly domestic approaches, yet they refuse to invest in tackling the problem at source, where solutions should begin.
Ruud Lubbers, UN High Commissioner for Refugees
Asylum in the UK
The history of refugees in Norfolk has shaped distinctive elements of our local identity.
Local Support Groups