Asylum Seekers Basic Needs Unmet In The UK

Last month, a quiet announcement from UK Home Secretary Theresa May dashed the hopes of thousands of asylum seekers in the UK. A court ruling in April had criticized the very low level of support it gives to those seeking asylum and had given her four months to show how she had calculated that it would cover their needs. The Home Office duly did its sums, but announced that the amount to be paid would not increase.

Dave Garratt, the chief executive of Refugee Action, the organization which took the Home Secretary to court, told IRIN that asylum seekers were coming through their doors, telling them that they were really struggling to survive. But the campaigners did at least force the Home Office to give an account of how the asylum seekers’ allowance - currently just over £5 a day for a single adult - was calculated.

“Essentially what they have done,” says Garratt, “is base it on the expenditure of the lowest 10 percent of people in the UK. But we think that is quite flawed, because that is about expenditure, not about need, and many of those people have other help, from family and friends. It doesn't take account of the special circumstances of asylum seekers who may arrive without clothes or shoes, and have no stored food to fall back on. We still think it is not high enough, but now we have the analysis written down, at least we have something we can debate about, and the formula will have to be re-applied every year so they can show they are doing their job properly.”  A single adult asylum seeker's allowance is currently only just over 50 percent of the benefit known as “income support” - in itself considered the minimum needed to lead an adequate life.

One of the most blistering critiques of the system had come from the London-based organization, Freedom from Torture, which provides medical and psychological support to the victims of torture. They received 1,251 new referrals of torture survivors last year, from 80 countries; the vast majority had sought asylum in the UK. Rhian Beynon, the organization's spokesperson, told IRIN: “The failure of the Home Office to increase the current asylum support levels is a missed opportunity and the effects will be felt by some of the most vulnerable people living in the UK today.”

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