ROUGH sleeping is common amongst individuals who have been refused asylum within the UK, leaving them vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, a recent report from the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) UK says.
The report, published on Tuesday, relies on 113 anonymous surveys of people that had sooner or later exhausted their appeal rights, and were supported by JRS UK between September and November 2023. A minority were in receipt of asylum support, having submitted a fresh asylum claim. The research was conducted by way of multiple-choice questions, and interviews about individuals’ experiences.
Respondents generally had no selection where they stayed, and were forced to just accept accommodation where they may, an these included unsafe and exploitative situations within the informal renting market, the report says. About 20 per cent of respondents didn’t feel physically protected around other residents.
The report also concludes that “Home Office accommodation itself may be very poor, and sometimes feels physically unsafe.”
Destitution was found to have wide-reaching negative affects on well-being, including the problem of regulating medication. “Hosting and housing schemes had exponentially improved the power to administer health conditions for some respondents.”
Long-term destitution within the context of asylum is, the report says, “very detrimental to mental health. Respondents reported anxiety, chronic sleep deprivation, and suicidal ideation.”
Related to this, “the experience of asylum destitution has a profound overall impact on sense of self. It marginalises people and denies them privacy, stability, and dignity. Consequently, it’s dehumanising.”
In a foreword, a former asylum-seeker, Joyce, writes that, since being entered into the UK asylum system just a few years ago, she had “stayed in 15 or 16 places”, and had slept on the streets.
“When you don’t have a spot to put your head, then you definately cannot think straight. People would think I had serious mental illness, but I used to be just losing my balance because I didn’t have a stable and protected place.
“For women, it could possibly be even worse, because some men reap the benefits of them because they’re vulnerable. They sometimes find yourself forcing themselves into relationships they don’t need to be in so that they have a roof over their heads.
“When you might be on the streets, you can’t eat when or what you wish, you can’t follow your medical treatment precisely, you may’t shower, you may’t wash your clothes and dress properly. You can just drop dead any time once you don’t have accommodation. Everyone needs somewhere to rest and feel protected.”
JRS UK is looking on the brand new Government to finish hostile-environment policy, which, it says, “intentionally builds barriers to essential services, bringing immigration enforcement into every sphere of life”.
It also calls on the Government to finish the rule of “no recourse to public funds” for asylum-seekers; to lift the ban on asylum-seekers’ being employed; and to create a “simplified path to settled status” for people living within the UK in the long run.
Other recommendations are: to increase the move-on period for newly recognised refugees to a minimum of 56 days from receiving a residence permit, to stop “rapid evictions”; to repeal the Illegal Immigration Act; to widen eligibility for homelessness support; and to guard the info of individuals entering the asylum system.
The director of JRS UK, Sarah Teather, said on Tuesday: “The reality . . . is horrifying. People who sought safety listed below are plunged into homelessness and danger, left vulnerable to exploitation, abuse, and life-threatening illness. This will not be recent. Some people we work with have lived like this for a long time, as an intentional consequence of successive governments’ policies. This must, finally, stop.
“The Government has a chance to take a recent approach. It must now end the Hostile Environment and enforced destitution.”
The writer of the report, Dr Sophie Cartwright, said: “The enforced destitution of individuals refused asylum is shameful. People who just desired to be protected are pushed, by government policy, to the very edges of society. They haven’t any protected technique to meet their basic needs, and no home. They frequently have nowhere they will rest or go simply to feel secure.
“This will not be human. It’s not who we’re. If any of us were forced to depart our home, we might all want somewhere to be protected. We would all desire a probability to rebuild our lives. It’s time to make that occur.”
