Asylum seekers are often destitute upon their arrival in the UK. Therefore, they depend primarily on the UK government to support them. However, the UK government has been enforcing the destitution of asylum seekers. Consequently, it has followed policies that inhibit asylum seekers’ access to ordinary benefits and employment and their ability to do significant activities. Moreover, asylum seekers have faced severe problems in Home Office accommodation centres, which has badly damaged the Tories’ face. The UK government’s neglect of asylum seekers has turned into a crisis. The Tories intentionally created this crisis to stop immigration into the UK. Now, how should the Labour Party handle the situation?
UK government’s neglect of asylum seekers
As the Scottish Refugee Council says, for a long time now, we’ve seen a continued attack on the right to seek asylum in the UK. Moreover, there has been the conservative government’s wilful neglect of the system itself. This neglect has caused the system to fall into chaos and crisis. People and communities who are directly experiencing the sharp end of this crisis are asylum seekers. People live on £40 a week without the right to work to support themselves. Besides, there are families waiting years for a decision on the right to remain in the UK. Moreover, we witness children moving from school to school as they are shifted around temporary accommodation. In addition, we can see pregnant women and new mums, infants, and babies stuck in hotel rooms.
Asylum-seeking kid’s protection crisis
The UK government’s neglect of asylum seekers has led to a crisis for children. The UK government revealed early in 2023 that 200 unaccompanied under-18s had “disappeared” from Home Office hotel accommodation.
Moreover, the fate of more than 150 missing children is dismissed with a shrug by the state. Meanwhile, a system of forced MRI and X-ray tests to uncover mythical adults pretending to be kids becomes a law. “Over the past two years, the government has made a series of decisions that have shown a dangerous disregard for the safety and wellbeing of children,” Lauren Starkey tells the Lead.
Lauren Starkey is an independent social worker specialising in the care of trafficked, asylum-seeking Children. In November 2023, Alison Thewliss asked Home Office civil servants about the number of children missing from Home Office hotels. Alison Thewliss is SNP MP for Glasgow Central. “How many have you found?” Alison asked. “I don’t know how many exactly,” was the answer. In June 2023, the Home Office said 154 children remained unaccounted for. It seems they aren’t sure where any of these children might be.
According to the Refugee Council, a report found that at least 1,300 refugee children were in unsupervised adult accommodation and detention. They were there for 18 months after being wrongly age-assessed on arrival in the UK. The report shows that children as young as 14 were forced to share rooms with unrelated adults without any safeguards. It includes direct accounts from children who felt unsafe, scared, and distressed by their experiences. Some children faced harassment, abuse, and mental health crises.
Asylum seekers in Home Office accommodation
The UK government’s neglect of asylum seekers is evident in Home Office accommodation. According to the Guardian, there are hundreds of complaints about ill-treatment from staff looking after asylum seekers in hotels. A Guardian investigation has found that the complaints have been lodged within the last year.
Asylum seekers say the complaints include abuse and harassment and failures to deal with vulnerabilities such as mental health problems. Furthermore, there are complaints about staff walking into asylum seekers’ bedrooms unannounced.
Data released to the Guardian showed 428 complaints over the last year about staff behaviour. In addition, there were 463 complaints about the meals provided.
More specifically, the problems of meals included inedible food and a lack of milk for children. The charity Refugee Action documents complaints from asylum seekers in hotels. One case involved a complaint from a woman who was a victim of sexual abuse. Because of a problem with the door of her room, it could only be opened from the outside. Thus, she was reliant on staff to let her out.
Who makes decisions on asylum seekers’ applications?
The UK government’s neglect of asylum seekers is noticeable in asylum interviews. According to ECRE, the Home Office is hiring people with experience in sales and customer service to interview asylum seekers. These people make “life or death” decisions on asylum seekers’ applications. This is an attempt to clear the backlog.
Labour Vs. Conservatives
According to France 24, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on Saturday that the migrant deportation plan forged by the ousted Conservative government is “dead and buried”. The Labour Party said before the last general election that it would ditch the scheme. On the contrary, the Tories supported it. The Tories said the scheme would deter many migrants from crossing the Channel to the UK.
As the BBC reports, Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed Labour would restart processing asylum applications for people who have previously arrived in the UK illegally. However, Conservative ministers said they planned to remove the asylum seekers from the UK and send them either to Rwanda or to other countries. The Labour leader says this was not happening, and the policy proved to be the “absolute opposite of a deterrent.”
The Labour Party should end suppressing immigrants
The unfavourable situation of asylum seekers in the UK’s Home Office accommodation was a negative point in the Conservatives’ government. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak used all his efforts to limit the entry of immigrants and asylum seekers to England. The crisis of asylum seekers in England could worsen if the conservatives continued to be in power. The Labour Party should urgently end the policy of suppressing immigrants, which the Conservatives followed. Otherwise, it will lose its supporters and its reputation worldwide.
