The Truth about Asylum Seekers and Refugees in the UK

Today we met a teenage boy who was a newly arrived asylum seeker from a war torn African country. Although just a child, he had arrived alone without family, crossing the dangerous sea on a small boat. He told us he was lucky as the whole journey had only taken him 1 year, others he explained took 2-3 years. Whilst he had managed to reach our shores, his mother – his only surviving family – could not make the journey and was left in another African country as a refugee. He has no means to contact her.

We see many asylum seekers at our kitchen, but this is the first time we saw a lone boy. The boy has only been in the UK a few months, and lives in a basic room in a Home Office run shelter with no access to cooking facilities, whilst he waits for his asylum application to be considered, which Croydon Council say typically takes 2-4 years on average for asylum seekers in Croydon.

Croydon has had a much higher proportion of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children than most other boroughs, with over 5000 such unaccompanied children over the last decade. Recently that number has dropped significantly with council figures showing 100 unaccompanied children last December (2022).

The wellbeing of children in the Home Office’s care doesn’t seen to be a priority. More than 400 unaccompanied children have gone missing from accommodation run by the Home Office. Of those, 154 are still missing according to a recent parliamentary debate (June 2023), despite police efforts to find them. There were signs that some had been kidnapped and trafficked. One child, a victim of assault, had allegedly been forced into slavery.

Meeting this boy prompted us to write this article in which we aim to cut through the government propaganda about asylum seekers and refugees.

What's an asylum seeker, why do they exist?

An asylum seeker is someone who flees their home to another country because of war or other dangers, and seeks protection (asylum) there. They have a legal right to stay in that country whilst waiting for a decision on their asylum application. Once they have been granted asylum they are considered refugees.

So often western interference in the global south, whether direct military intervention like bombing Afghanistan, bombing Iraq, bombing Libya, bombing Syria, and bombing Yemen, or indirect intervention through bank-rolling terrorist groups, sanctions and economic warfare designed at ‘regime change’ has led to countless deaths, economic collapse, famine, and the inevitable exodus of ordinary people fleeing their homes to save their lives. This is the single most common reason for people becoming refugees.

Hypocritically these same powers, like our government, that create these crises after crises, wash their hands of any responsibility and complain that they cannot shelter the minute number of refugees that reach their shores.

It should be clarified that despite the misinformation spread by the government and compliant media, under the 1951 Refugee Covention, which the UK is a signatory, a person does not have to claim asylum in the first safe country they reach. People trying to cross the Channel can legitimately claim asylum in the UK if they reach it. Because the government refuses to provide safe and legal routes to the UK, many women, men and children are compelled to attempt dangerous journeys and seek the assistance of smugglers in order to exercise their right to seek asylum in the UK.

Is the UK 'swarming' with asylum seekers?

The British Prime Minister David Cameron has compared asylum seekers arriving in the UK to insects, dehumanising them by calling them a “swarm”. But what are the facts?

According to UNHCR statistics, as of November 2022 there were a mere 231,597 refugees, 127,421 pending asylum cases and 5,483 stateless persons in the UK – that’s a tiny 0.54% of the British population. According to Home Office figures most of these refugees are cherry picked from Ukraine – 233,771 have been granted visas of which 179,500 have already arrived (June 2023).

Islamophobic and racist policies play a central role in the government determining who is granted refugee status in the UK, and who is ‘othered’ and not welcome. That’s why we don’t see Ukrainians risking their lives crossing the Channel in small boats to seek asylum in the UK, they are instead welcomed with £200 gifts when they arrive and under the ‘Homes For Ukraine’ scheme they don’t have to live in squalid Home Office shelters for years whilst their application is being considered.

In Europe, the UK ranks a poor 18th in terms of asylum applications in proportion to the population.

Amnesty states

“The UK Government has been steadfast in its general refusal to share responsibility for receiving and providing asylum to people forced to flee war and persecution. It lags very far behind the larger of EU countries such as France, Germany and Spain and even further behind countries such as Iran, Lebanon and Uganda in its commitment to providing a place of safety.”

Lets compare with Iran

Let’s take the example of Iran, as sighted by Amnesty, and compare it with the UK.

Numbers

With figures of Syrian refugees in Türkiye declining recently, Iran is now the world’s main host country of refugees with 3.4 million refugees – hosting some of them for over 40 years! That’s 10 times more than the UK!

Prior to the invasion of Ukraine, Iran was by far the most-sanctioned country in history with 44 years of sanctions aimed at fermenting ‘regime change’ by western powers not happy with the Islamic Revolution of 1979 which toppled the UK/US imposed brutal dictatorship of the shah. Unlike the UK, Iran is under intense economic pressure and receives very little international help in supporting the 3.4 million refugees it has given safety to.

UN praise

Yet the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees praises how well Iran is looking after its refugees as an example for other nations to follow, in June this year (2023) it reported:

“Iran’s refugee inclusive policies grant refugees access to education, health services, and livelihood opportunities. Since 2015, Iran began allowing all Afghan children of school age to attend primary and secondary school regardless of their documentation status. Currently more than 800,000 Afghan children are enrolled in Iranian schools studying side-by-side with Iranian children.
These progressive measures demonstrate Iran’s commitment to inclusivity and solidarity, ensuring that no child’s education is compromised due to forced displacement. By providing equal opportunities and support, Iran is fostering a brighter future for displaced individuals and setting an inspiring example for other nations.”

Waiting Times

In the UK people seeking asylum are forced to wait an average of 20 months for an initial decision. Croydon council figures suggest 2-4 years wait times is typical for asylum seekers in Croydon. According to the Refugee Council some have waited more than 5 years! After this long wait, many case are seemingly automatically rejected with 52% being granted refugee status only after appealing the decision, and further waiting whilst their appeal is considered.

Employment

In the meantime, unlike in Iran, asylum seekers are banned from working, or from claiming benefits. Essentially families are puposely left destitute, forced to survive on asylum support if it is granted – a paltry £5.84 per day – to cover food, clothing, sanitation, non-prescrip medication, and everything else! Is it any surprise than so many asylum seekers, out of hunger, end up in food banks?

Some Asylum seekers are provided accommodation and food, in this case their asylum support is cut to just £1.37 a day!

Housing

Human Rights Watch and Just Fair, just this month – Sept 2023 published a report on the “dire” living conditions for asylum seekers. The report finds there are increasingly serious deficiencies with the temporary accommodation used for asylum seekers by the Home Office. Some families experienced infestations of rats and other vermin, black mould covering the walls and ceilings, soiled bed sheets and blankets.

Just last year the BBC reported that Home Office provided accommodation to asylum seekers is in such dilapidated condition that several ceiling have collapsed on children, sewage flowing in to kitchens, and asylum seekers are still expected to live there.

And now the government, in order to reduce costs even further, is moving forwards with plans to pack asylum seekers on barges and old barracks, where conditions are even worse.

Food

The food being served in government run accommodation has caused malnutrition in children. Last month asylum seekers in Reading went on hunger strike to protest at poor food that has caused some to end up in hospital.

GP Joan Nash told Sky News (Nov 2022) that one in 10 asylum seekers she has seen have stomach problems which could be linked to what they are eating.

She was also concerned about children of asylum seekers she sees who are not putting on weight.

Dr Nash said:

“The weight of the children is a real cause for concern.
Of the children that we have weighed – two-thirds of them since arrival have either stayed the same or have actually lost weight.
That’s really alarming and really unusual in children. This is over a six, seven-month period.”

A woman staying in a hotel with her young daughter in London, told Sky News (July 2023) she had been having suicidal thoughts as a result of poor food.

She said of her daughter:

“It’s been miserable… she hasn’t eaten healthy food for over five months – no vegetables, no fresh milk, no cheese, no egg, no fish.
“Imagine a kid who is growing and needs all this protein and calcium – she doesn’t get any of this.
“For the first time in my whole life I’ve had suicidal thoughts… and there are so many suicidal people in the same place.”

It doesn’t have to be this way, if the UK followed Iran’s example and allowed asylum seekers to work, then they could choose where to live, shop for their own food, and cook their own meals.

Education

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ordered that all refugees in his country be permitted an education irrespective of their residency status:

“No Afghan child, not even immigrants who came to Iran illegally and without documents, must be kept from an education and all of them must be registered in Iranian schools.”

Unlike in Iran, children seeking asylum in the UK are denied access to education. Asylum seekers are first placed in ‘initial accommodations where they may stay over a year before being relocated. Those in initial accommodation do not have a legal right to attend school and local councils say they do not have a legal responsibility to provide education for them.

In our borough of Croydon, a few streets from our food kitchen, Brigstock House is one such ‘initial accommodation’ where children are denied an education. Peter Hall, coordinator of Croydon Refugee Day Centre, who works with a lot of families placed in initial accommodation in Brigstock House, said in an interview with the Guardian newspaper that

“Some may be there for several months. In the last four weeks, a group of lads around the age of 12 have been coming to our centre regularly and can’t get into a school because they are in initial Home Office accommodation…. If these children aren’t allowed to go to school they should at least be provided with some kind of a home educator system.”

Detention Camps

And these are the lucky ones, the UK places many asylum seekers in detention camps. Last year (year ending Sept 2022) the UK placed 23,226 people into immigration detention ( including those detained under immigration powers in prisons). This figure is rising at an alarming rate, its 3 times higher than it was the year ending June 2020.

Hunger as a weapon

The problem is not the number of people claiming asylum in the UK – its 10 times less than those claiming asylum in Iran, it’s the way their legitimate claims are purposely mishandled that is the problem. The UK treats refugees with contempt, purposely making their lives miserable, and unliveable, using hunger and destitution as weapons to ‘encourage’ them to leave the UK. And when that doesn’t work, they outright break the Asylum and Refugee Convention by forcefully deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda, in breach of their human rights.

Instead of trying to overthrown the Iranian government for the past 44 years, perhaps the UK should follow its lead and learn to treat its refugees with the same respect and humanity Iran shows.

Help raise awareness by sharing