By Catherine Pepinster
Asylum seekers in the UK are being forced into destitution and homelessness by an immigration system that has created a hostile environment to try to deter people, a report says today.
The report, Destitute and in Danger: People made homeless by the asylum system, shows that refugees are trapped into destitution by their immigration status. Routes out of homelessness available to UK nationals are blocked to them.
People who claim asylum, are refused it, and who then appeal against the judgment, cannot access public funds. Like nearly all asylum seekers, they are banned from working, and all support from the Home Office is cut off.
The survey, published by the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), found that large numbers of asylum seekers are rough sleepers, with others couch surfing and are at perpetual risk of ending up on the streets. Others use night buses as a form of accommodation.
Of all respondents, 43 per cent had slept rough within the last year, more than 21 per cent of all respondents for over a month. Nearly half of those interviewed who were not in Home Office housing or being helped by the JRS had slept rough within the last year.
About 20 per cent of those surveyed said they felt physically at risk from their circumstances and many also reported that they had health conditions that worsened because of their situation. This included people suffering from physical problems and mental health issues, through a lack of access to both doctors and regular medication. People who have had their asylum application refused also have to pay for NHS care.
The Jesuit Refugee Service was founded 44 years ago by the Roman Catholic Society of Jesus, and operates in 50 countries, with support workers, drop-in centres and accommodation for asylum seekers in the UK. It also found that women were particularly at risk. One asylum seeker, Joyce, told them that women “sometimes end up forcing themselves into relationships they don’t want to be in so they have a roof over their heads”.
The JRS report accuses successive governments of having a policy “to manufacture destitution among people refused asylum”.
When people are awaiting a decision on their asylum claim they cannot get mainstream benefits but are also banned from working. This means they have only basic housing and financial support, of £49.18 a week. Once a claim is refused by the Home Office and a court, and their rights to appeal are exhausted, all support is cut off.
At this point they must depend entirely on charity and any support that friends and family can offer. If they reapply for asylum, they can have access to a card for purchases, not cash.
Under “hostile environment” legislation, launched in 2012 under the previous Conservative government when David Cameron was prime minister and Theresa May was home secretary, someone without leave to remain faces barriers to healthcare, and cannot open a bank account, rent accommodation, or get a driving licence.
The JRS report says the “hostile environment” policy — still operating but rebranded as “compliant environment” — “pushes people into extreme hardship and poverty, with no legal way to support themselves, and means they are more easily targeted for exploitation and abuse”.
Aspects of its operation have previously been ruled unlawful by the UK High Court. The Equality and Human Rights Commission concluded that it had illegally fostered racial discrimination, and it has similarly been condemned by the United Nations Special Rapporteur for stoking racism and xenophobia in the UK.
Sarah Teather, the director of the JRS, said: “For years, JRS UK has supported people made destitute by the asylum system — and we see the crushing impact destitution has on them. This new report shares their stories, and the reality it reveals is horrifying. People who sought safety here are plunged into homelessness and danger, left vulnerable to exploitation, abuse, and life-threatening illness.
“This is not new. Some people we work with have lived like this for decades, as an intentional consequence of successive governments’ policies. This must, finally stop. The government has an opportunity to take a new approach. It must now end the ‘hostile environment’ and enforced destitution.”
It is a struggle even for those who gain refugee status. Newly recognised refugees regularly become homeless because they are evicted from Home Office accommodation before they realistically have time to secure other housing, alongside Universal Credit or paid work: the “move-on” period before newly recognised refugees have their asylum support cut off is 28 days from when a biometric residence permit card is issued to them. Without this permit, they cannot seek other accommodation or work, or access mainstream support.
A recent cross-party survey shows that rough sleeping among newly recognised refugees in London was 234 per cent higher in January 2024 than in September 2023.
Several hundred thousand people live in the UK without immigration status despite being long-term resident in the UK.
The report calls for:
- An end to the hostile (or compliant) environment policies
- Enabling people refused asylum to gain access to public funds
- Allowing people claiming asylum to work
- The creation of a simplified route to settled status
- Extension of the “move-on” period for newly recognised refugees to at least 56 days from when residence permits are received
- The repeal of the Illegal Migration Act 2023, which threatens to extend asylum destitution, and the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, which builds delays into the asylum process.
Immigration and asylum seeking remain deeply contentious political topics. The new Labour government has said that it will process asylum claims previously not admitted to the system because of the Illegal Migration Act 2023 and the Nationality and Borders Act 2022.
Last month, Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, announced new tough measures to deal with failed asylum seekers, including staff being redeployed to increase the removal of failed asylum seekers, which had dropped by 40 per cent since 2010. Three hundred caseworkers have already been reassigned to progress thousands of failed asylum and returns cases, including enforced and voluntary returns.
Meanwhile issues linked to immigration and refugees remains a highly neuralgic issue for the Conservative Party. Among the contenders to succeed Rishi Sunak as party leader is Robert Jenrick, a former immigration minister, who complained earlier this year that Britain was regularly seeing cases of asylum seekers “making spurious claims to have converted to Christianity, aided and abetted by often well-meaning but naive, vicars and priests”.
