To follow on from my last post, having sought to define the problem around people who are refused refugee status but are unable to be returned home, it is also important to be able to define possible solutions to help such people.
While some form of benefit support will be important, these people have often been in the country a long time waiting for their initial asylum decision and are desperate to be able to use the skills that they have to be able to support themselves. So if we cannot return such people to their country of origin, surely we should be able to let them work?
Since 2002 asylum seekers have been denied the right to work in the UK. So while they are often attacked in the media for relying upon benefits for support, they have no other legal option being denied the right to work.
So when I heard that there was going to be a new campaign in the UK to push for the ban on asylum seekers working to be lifted, I got very excited and full of hope. Yet when I saw the detail, I realised that this campaign was only going to be focussed on people still in the asylum process who had waited more than 6 months. When I pushed some of the organisers about why the campaign would not cover refused asylum seekers unable to be returned home, I was told that this group of people were considered to be too politically difficult.
Here we have a clear injustice of people being trapped in destitution, but then even a campaign on the right to work for asylum seekers self-censors itself not to include refused asylum seekers who are denied any means of supporting themselves.
An injustice compounded by a further injustice. Sometimes I wish campaigners could be just a bit less concerned about things being politically difficult and instead focus on the real humanitarian need.
I spoke to a colleague who works across the North East of England recently. He told me that that the only way he can get interest for the Lift the Ban campaign in his region is to talk about how it is a solution for people refused refugee status and who are unable to be returned home. People are appalled to hear that such a crisis exists in the UK. Yet the national campaign does not include such people.
At the very least you could start the campaign focussing on those in the asylum system, but as a means to build momentum to including people who are refused and on the margins of society trapped in destitution.
I will continue to highlight the injustice caused by this self-censorship and push for the Lift the Ban campaign to include refused, non-returnable asylum seekers.
