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Plight of the refugees left to rot in Yorkshire
A DAMNING report which exposes "appalling and inhumane" conditions facing destitute asylum seekers in Yorkshire today calls for urgent changes to Government policy.
The study funded by the York-based Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust warns that there is an "invisible" population of as many as half a million failed asylum seekers in Britain.
It said most were homeless, hungry and hidden. Evidence from a survey of more than 100 refused asylum seekers and refugees in Leeds found that one in four had slept rough and a third had been living hand-to-mouth for more than 12 months.
Many were suffering "grave" social and health problems and wrestling with thoughts of suicide.
In January the Yorkshire Post revealed how thousands of failed asylum seekers were living in destitution in Yorkshire as the chaos surrounding deportations left many facing years of poverty.
A pregnant woman sleeping rough in a telephone box, a pensioner denied surgery to prevent blindness and women refused chemotherapy for cancer were among cases highlighted.
Today's report brands it a "scandal" that people were destitute as a direct result of Government policy.
It calls on Ministers to give them licences to work, with access to food, accommodation and health care for others who cannot work.
It also wants an end to the role of the Home Office in ruling on asylum claims together with swifter decision-making based on "British values".
Journalist Kate Adie, who chaired the inquiry, said: "Destitution is shaming, both for the individual and for the society that tolerates it.
"It has become abundantly clear to us that the appropriate response to this issue does not depend on whether you are a soft-hearted 'asylum seeker hugger' or a tough-minded defender of Britain's borders.
"For the benefit of everyone, there has got to be urgent and pragmatic reform which brings these people in from the shadows so that they can be treated humanely, contribute to the community and remain inside the system."
The acting chief executive of the Refugee Council, Anna Reisenberger, said: "We hope this balanced and reasonable report from an independent inquiry will finally convince the Government that its policy towards refused asylum seekers has failed and that urgent reform is needed."
She said Government policy of using destitution to force people to return to their home countries might look tough but was not delivering results.
"For all sorts of reasons many refused asylum seekers cannot return home, at least for the time being," she said.
"Given that, the policy of denying refused asylum seekers all support and refusing them the right to work manages to be both immoral and pointless."
Volunteer worker Christine Majid, of support group Positive Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Leeds, said the problem was becoming worse.
"We are looking back now at 200 years since slavery was abolished but I wonder how we will look back at leaving people destitute like this," she said.
"People should be given the chance to help themselves through work. Just to throw them on the street with nothing is inhumane."
Last night the Home Office rejected criticisms in the report, which will be launched today in the House of Commons.
Minister Joan Ryan said: "Our asylum system is a fair one. It ensures that support is available to someone claiming asylum from the time they arrive in the UK until the outcome of their claim is determined.
"But it is not right to ask the UK taxpayer to fund – potentially indefinitely – those who choose to remain when it is open to them to return to a home country that has been found safe for them to live in."
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 11 February 2012
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