Asylum seekers who have been refused accommodation and support under section 55 of the Asylum & Immigration Bill and apply to have their cases reviewed will now be moved into emergency accommodation until further notice.
There are no official figures for how many asylum seekers have been made destitute under section 55 but a recent report from the Greater London Authority estimated the number to be about 14,000. The Home Office refused to say how many of these had applied for a review or how much the accommodation would cost.
The reprieve has come about because immigration and asylum minister Des Browne is reviewing section 55 after a successful legal challenge last month (HT 28 May, page 13). Section 55 denies support to any asylum seeker who fails to make a claim as soon as reasonably practicable after arriving in the country.
Asylum seekers have always been able to appeal against section 55 decisions and have always been entitled to accommodation while their appeal has been considered.
But decisions that used to be made within 24 hours have now been suspended until the review is complete, meaning that the government is forced to continue providing emergency accommodation.
The affected asylum seekers, concentrated in the South-east, are thought to be staying with friends or relations or sleeping rough.
Even asylum seekers whose appeal against the section 55 decision is unfounded will have to be accommodated while the decision-making process is suspended, said Tim Crowley, acting inter-agency coordinator for the asylum support programme inter-agency partnership.
Browne has been presented with a set of options by civil servants in the National Asylum Support Service. These are believed to include watering down the policy to take account of human rights legislation or, less likely, repealing it.
Crowley said: "Early indications are that, whatever the new process, more people will be granted access to NASS support."
The minister is expected to make his decision within the next few weeks.
The review was prompted by a court case last month, where Court of Appeal judges ruled that shelter was a "basic human right". The Home Office is considering appealing against the decision but any appeal would have to go to the House of Lords and would take at least a year to complete.
Asylum workers have welcomed the reprieve but say the legal wrangling has caused confusion across the country.
In Coventry, for example, 40 asylum seekers have been bussed to emergency accommodation in London and Dover despite there being some 400 empty, paid-for beds for dispersed asylum seekers in the town.
Emergency accommodation has to be procured by NASS and is usually provided through existing contracts in bed and breakfasts or hostels across the South and Midlands.
Wes Webb, chief executive of the Coventry Refugee Centre, said: "People are being shipped to London but we have all these empty spaces [for dispersal].
"It's typical of asylum policy – nobody applies any logic and nobody applies any humanity."
Countdown to a review
David Blunkett amends Asylum Bill, withdrawing support from asylum seekers who do not claim asylum at the earliest opportunity Jan 2003
The amendment, now known as section 55, comes into force Oct 2003
With 800 cases waiting to be heard, Justice Maurice Kay says the multiple appeals against section 55 are clogging up the courts Dec 2003
Blunkett says asylum seekers who claim within three days of arriving in the country will be considered to have made their claim as soon as reasonably practicable May 2004
The Court of Appeal rules that forcing people to sleep rough is a breach of their human rights and orders the Home Office to review section 55
Source
Housing Today
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