40% of people using refugee agencies are destitute

For 4 weeks in November and December 2007, the five agencies which make up the Inter-Agency Partnership on Asylum Support asked their local refugee services to record the proportion of the people who use their services who are destitute. They discovered that:

• Over 40% of the people using the services of refugee agencies are destitute.

• Over 25% of the destitute cases are people who are pursuing a claim for asylum and so are likely to be legally entitled to support, but are prevented because of procedural errors. The survey concludes that the system is failing people: "the New Asylum Model is not ensuring that those who are entitled to support receive it".

• The majority of the destitute cases seen are refused asylum seekers. The survey notes that "This highlights the pressing needs of those who are destitute because they have exhausted their right to claim asylum, and yet remain in the UK. It also highlights the difficulties faced by the refugee agencies in working with people who can be offered little practical support."

• A number of destitute cases seen are people who have not yet claimed asylum.
  

You can download the full report from the Refugee Council website.

These figures are distressing and unacceptable. It isn't just that the current asylum system deliberately makes failed asylum-seekers destitute, and that many of them stay here anyway because they have nowhere else to go. It's also that the system is failing others too, causing people to become destitute when they are entitled to support.

CAP's Living Ghosts campaign is calling on the Government to change the policies that make asylum-seekers destitute. Please get involved and use the resources and ideas on this site - or make a donation to support this work.