The disappeared

“I received a call the other day from a woman who had been kicked out of her accommodation. She had nowhere to go and she sounded pretty desperate. It was just before five o’clock and she was ringing from a council office that was about to close.

“I gave her my address and told her to come to my house but she never arrived.

I don’t know if she got lost or decided not to come. I have no idea where she ended up.”

The speaker is Sakile Mtombeni, spokesman for the Zimbabwe refugee community in Leeds. He leads a group of local residents who provide support to destitute asylum seekers.

A loophole in the Nationality, Immigration & Asylum Act 2002 means hundreds of failed asylum seekers from countries not deemed safe by the UK government are ending up in the same situation as the woman described by Mtombeni. I met him and Zair Kadir, spokesman for the Leeds Kurdish community, on a blustery winter’s evening in Yorkshire to talk about the growing number of people from countries such as Iraq and Zimbabwe who are disappearing onto British streets (HT 5 November, page 7).

The failed asylum seekers themselves were too scared of repercussions to speak directly to me.

So how do they end up in such a state?

If their application is rejected by the Home Office, asylum seekers from Iraq and Zimbabwe are entitled to remain in the UK until the government says it is safe to return. Like people from “safe” countries, they are given 28 days’ notice to quit National Asylum Support Service accommodation, but they are offered “hard case” support under section 4 of the Asylum Act.

This provides hostel accommodation but they may be sent anywhere in the UK with no access to support. In order to be eligible, they must sign a voluntary deportation document agreeing to go home if any organisation finds a way for them to do so.

As a result of these restictions, a growing number of failed asylum seekers are not accessing hard case support and are ending up destitute, sleeping on the streets or on friends’ sofas – usually other asylum seekers living in NASS accommodation who are risking their own applications by putting them up.

Many of them go to councils and registered social landlords for help, but they are unable to offer assistance as they are not funded by the government to do so.

Caroline Cooke, team manager for Yorkshire & Humberside branch of the Refugee Council, says the would-be refugees are extremely fearful that the government will simply send them home if they take up hard case support. “It is a major issue that asylum seekers have to sign a voluntary deportation document, regardless of whether their country is safe or not. It doesn’t make any sense. Why would you voluntarily return to the country you had fled from if it isn’t safe? And it’s not voluntary if your only other option is to starve on the streets,” she says.

Cooke says many failed asylum seekers also fear being sent away from where they are living. “Word spreads that they could be sent anywhere in the UK, taking them away from essential support in their existing community.

“It’s important to remember that we are talking about people who could have been living here for a couple of years awaiting their asylum decision. They would have established a support network in that time, especially among other asylum seekers.

“It’s not hard to see why they are turning their backs on hard case support,” she says.

Why would you voluntarily return to the country you had fled from if it isn't safe? And it's not voluntary if the other option is to starve on the streets caroline cooke, refugee council

How hundreds of people vanish

It is difficult to know precisely how many failed asylum seekers have been affected, though the Home Office does have figures for those receiving section 4 support (statistics, above). Once people are cut off from NASS accommodation and support services, they are hard to track down. With no address to trace them to, they effectively disappear.

The Yorkshire & Humberside consortium, an umbrella body that brings together local authorities providing NASS accommodation, puts the number of destitute asylum seekers in the hundreds. Asylum Seekers Support Initiative – Short Term, a Sheffield charity

that supports this group, says there are currently 300 in Sheffield alone.

According to the Refugee Council and the groups representing Zimbabwean and Kurdish refugees in Leeds, the problem is growing because of an increase in the number of asylum rejections for people from Zimbabwe and Iraq.

Kadir says many of them end up working on the fringes of the economy while the government turns a blind eye. “As long as this country is doing well, the government doesn’t care if asylum seekers end up on the black market and get exploited,” he says.

Clive Betts, Labour MP for Sheffield Attercliffe, is calling for the policy of dispersal to be reviewed and for NASS accommodation to be extended until it is safe for a failed asylum seeker to return. He has written a letter to the Home Office, signed by the local police force, Sheffield council and housing providers from his constituency, describing the situation as “absolutely ridiculous”.

The Refugee Council agrees and adds that more information and advice needs to be made available to asylum seekers living in NASS accommodation.

The Home Office says the government is doing what it can to prevent failed asylum seekers from becoming destitute. “Where a failed asylum seeker is unable to return due to circumstances entirely beyond their control, they may be eligible to receive accommodation under section 4,” says a spokeswoman.

“They do not need to wait until they are homeless or destitute before applying. Information about section 4 is included in letters sent by NASS terminating support.”

She adds: “Accommodation is provided on a no-choice basis taking individual preferences into account. NASS is trying, wherever possible, to provide section 4 accommodation in the area where the failed asylum seeker was already living.”

But Kadir and Mtombeni are convinced the government is ignoring its responsibility.

“While the government decides if a country is safe or not, it must keep supporting asylum seekers. It must be fair,” says Kadir. “These people are very vulnerable. All they want to do is work and support themselves, not live off the backs of others.”

Mtombeni agrees. “It’s not just about having a bed, it’s about having dignity. It’s about having a quality of life that doesn’t evolve around fear and uncertainty. The government seems to forget that asylum seekers are human beings too.”