A High Court ruling has deemed the government's level of support for asylum seekers and to freeze asylum support for three consecutive years as "irrational". Let’s be clear; asylum seekers are some of the world’s most vulnerable people, desperate to escape persecution such as rape, torture and war. Yet their suffering continues within the UK, largely a result of the paltry financial assistance available from the government. Most striking is their lack of choice; asylum seekers are unable to legally work or receive council housing – by freezing asylum support, the government is failing to provide these individuals’ only lifeline. The freeze in asylum support seems even more malicious when considering its limited financial benefit. Less than 0.1 per cent of the government’s spending on benefits goes to asylum seekers, suggesting that this controversy is driven by ideological, rather than practical, incentives. The Home Office’s decision will not only impact the 25,000 destitute asylum seekers in receipt of asylum support, it will reveal a great amount about the nature of this government.
Torture involves the deliberate infliction of severe physical or psychological pain or suffering. Designed to degrade and humiliate, it is a devastating assault on a person’s dignity, integrity and sense of identity. Torture survivors may suffer from complex and severe symptoms of trauma that impact greatly on their daily functioning and result in recurrent nightmares, panic attacks and distressing flashbacks, among other symptoms.
In the UK most asylum seekers do not have the right to work and earn an income. They are entirely dependent on the UK Government giving them just £36.62 per week – the current asylum support rate for a single adult over 18 and given to individuals who are waiting for a decision on their asylum claim. When introduced in 1999, asylum support was designed to provide 70 per cent of the money that a British national on income support would receive. That figure currently stands at 51 per cent – a meagre amount which has left many in severe poverty. A report from the campaign group Refugee Action describes how asylum seekers are regularly unable to afford food, whilst 88 per cent are unable to buy basic clothing items, leading to “social isolation” and “vulnerability to health problems”.
This means that torture survivors routinely have to make difficult decisions about essential living needs – for example, whether to buy food or detergent to wash their only set of clothes. One clinician describes how the “hopelessness and vulnerability” caused by poverty often provokes “depression and anxiety” in torture victims, a group already prone to mental illness.
Freedom from Torture confirms a disturbing reality for survivors of torture living in the UK: that their experiences of poverty compound their trauma and impede their rehabilitation. Not having money for a bus fare can stop a torture survivor from even reaching a session with their therapist. If they can attend, there are usually pressing practicalities to discuss: ‘Where will I sleep tonight?’ ‘How can I afford to eat this week?’ This leaves insufficient time in therapy to work through, contain and relieve the appalling traumatic memories and feelings that are the legacy of torture.
The UK, as a signatory to the United Nations Convention Against Torture (UNCAT), has committed itself under Article 14 to providing torture survivors with ‘the means to as full rehabilitation as possible’. This includes the restoration, as far as possible, of ‘their independence, physical mental social and vocational ability and full participation in society’. This definition would point to the need for dignified levels of support that facilitate full social inclusion in UK society.
Disinterest in the wellbeing and health of asylum seekers is to be expected whilst UK politics rides a wave of anti-migrant sentiment. With representatives from all parties trying to out-manoeuvre each other to provide a harsher stance on immigration, treatment of asylum seekers is suffering. Indeed, mental health care provision, support for children and the government’s detention programme have all received criticism in recent months. The lack of public outcry over these scandals is likely linked to growing unease over the UK’s immigration policy. Polls continuously show that the public overestimate the number of asylum seekers coming to the UK, often by more than two-fold. The myth that the UK is burdened by asylum seekers is entirely unfounded. Despite the UN last month announcing that the global number of refugees is the highest since WWII, the UK ranks only 11th out of the EU15 countries for the number of asylum seekers it welcomes, after accounting for population size. The media has recoiled in horror at the events in Syria and Gaza, while many politicians have spoken out to condemn such conflicts. Yet expressing empathy from a distance is not enough. Victims of war and persecution are also suffering from government policy here in the UK.
From the magazine Therapy Today and New Statesman
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