A new report, ‘Written out of the picture‘, published this week by the North East Child Poverty Commission and the Regional Refugee Forum North East draws attention to the destitution suffered by many refugees and asylum seekers, and points to their reliance on local services – libraries, health centres etc

Asylum seekers are not allowed to work whilst their claims are being determined, and most depend on Section 95 support, which is a lower rate of support than for UK citizens who are unable to work.  It often works out at just over £5 a day (housing and utility bills are paid for separately).

According to researchers, asylum seekers ‘are forced to live on the ‘margins of the margins’ while waiting for their cases to be processed. Cut off from the world of work, and often denied decent housing, adequate medical provision or cultural services, many drift into a state of destitution, rely on charity hand-outs or are forced into an underground economy.‘(O’Neill & Hubbard)

Despite a growing acknowledgement that the support offered to asylum seekers in the UK effectively ‘traps’ them in poverty, the role of local services and the issue of poverty amongst individuals once  granted leave to remain has received little attention from researchers or campaigners.  Given the importance of these services to the lives of asylum seekers, they should be a key group who are consulted on how services are provided.  Instead they are often patronised or ignored.

The report includes a number of recommendations that local services may want to consider but the over-riding aim is to encourage service providers to start a discussion ‘with’ asylum seekers and refugees about their experiences of poverty, rather than continue a somewhat limited discussion ‘about’ them and/or ‘without’ them.

Thanks:

We were alerted to this report by Poverty and Social Exclusion, the academic network for those working on poverty issues.

Tags: asylum seekers, Poverty