Refugees at the Borders

Jonathon Cox outlines the critical importance of the UK Borders Bill, which will be debated in Parliament this week.

This week, the House of Commons will debate the UK Borders Bill – the Government’s latest attempt (there have been five since 1997) to convince the public that it is tough on asylum and immigration.

Soon after coming into post last year, Immigration Minister Liam Byrne MP explained that a Guardian opinion poll had reported that only 4% of the public believed that the Government had immigration under control – “my job is to double that figure!” he joked.

Except maybe it wasn’t a joke. The UK Borders Bill is being sold suspiciously like a package of measures to convince the public that this is a Government they can trust to be tough on illegal immigrants.

Lost behind the rhetoric about “throwing out” illegal immigrants who “steal” jobs and benefits, is the plight of hundreds of thousands of destitute refused asylum seekers.

A refused asylum seeker is someone who has claimed asylum, been refused protection under the 1951 Geneva Convention, but remains in the UK. Nobody knows exactly how many refused asylum seekers there are, but the conservative estimate (based on a National Audit Office report two years ago) is 283,000, while MigrationWatch puts the figure at over half a million. What we do know is that they are evicted from their housing, their already meagre asylum support is terminated, and they are not allowed to work.

Given the Government’s admirable focus on reducing poverty in the UK, you would be forgiven for thinking that the destitution of refused asylum seekers is a policy oversight, but actually it is a policy outcome. It is too expensive to deport all refused asylum seekers, so the Government is deliberately making them destitute in order to ‘encourage’ their departure from the UK.

Naturally, the refugee charities and churches that are picking up the pieces are outraged. But why should those who have had a fair hearing and been found not to meet the criteria for refugee protection, be entitled to work, benefits or housing? This is a fair question and one that the Home Office poses to those who campaign against destitution. Refused asylum seekers needn’t be destitute, Ministers say, they have the option to return home.

Refused asylum seekers, however, often do not have a clear option to go home. Many countries do not co-operate with the re-documentation and readmission of their nationals. A country may not be safe for people to be returned there. Indeed, in countries like Iraq and Zimbabwe, the circumstances may be life-threatening, even though asylum seekers from that country are not granted protection. Where people choose the option of destitution – sleeping at laundrettes, on park benches and in telephone boxes, while relying on charity handouts - over returning to their country of origin, there is likely to be a good reason why they are unable to return.

What is needed is a politically viable solution that ends destitution while benefiting the UK - a progressive policy that combines economic efficiency with social justice. If refused asylum seekers were allowed to work, as most wish to do, they would contribute to the public purse, reduce national spending on asylum support, and be able to support themselves.

So the Still Human Still Here campaign, supported by a wide range of organisations including the Refugee Council, Amnesty International and the Catholic Church, has tabled amendments to the UK Borders Bill to end destitution. Still Human Still Here aims to end the use of destitution as a tool of Government policy against refused asylum seekers, and grant permission to work and access asylum support until they have left the UK or been granted leave to remain.

Whatever the House of Commons decides this week, the destitution of refused asylum seekers is a moral scandal, a human tragedy and a completely avoidable reality that will not simply disappear with a change of government. While Labour is mired in the futility of legislating to appease the insatiable appetite of the Daily Express, there is space for Conservatives to grapple with the reality of destitution. For the sake of thousands of refused asylum seekers caught in limbo, we hope it is one that recognises that they are still human, and still here.

Jonathan Cox is the Parliamentary and External Relations Officer for the Refugee Council. The Still Human Still Here campaign has a website: www.stillhuman.org.uk.