The asylum support system destroys hope and sanity

By Frances Webber

In his home country of Zimbabwe, Gabrial Ziki was chair of the National Aircraft Engineers’ Association – until 2003, when he organised a strike and his life was threatened. He fled to the UK, where, shockingly, his asylum claim was refused, and since then he has received no support. He ended up living in a car outside the women’s hostel in Shelton, Staffordshire, where his wife was placed, and she bought food for the two of them from her weekly entitlement of £35. In November 2009, at Stoke on Trent Crown Court, Gabrial was sentenced to six months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, with 180 hours’ unpaid work, for obtaining a false passport in order to seek work.

The level of support for adult asylum seekers was recently reduced from just over £42 to £35.15 a week. It is bad enough to expect anyone to live on that amount, which is designed to cover food, toiletries, clothes, transport and phone costs – in fact everything except accommodation and utility bills. People are living like that for months, sometimes years. But as this story reveals, and it is repeated all over the country, those in receipt of this pittance frequently have to share it with friends, who receive absolutely nothing.

Refused asylum seekers only get support if they’re taking steps to leave the country or if they can’t leave. Many Zimbabweans in particular have been in a cruel limbo for years, having had asylum claims refused but unable to return to Zimbabwe – a situation the government accepts in its policy of no forcible removals (because of the dangers awaiting anyone who is not a paid-up Mugabe supporter), while denying many even the most basic support on the grounds that they can return voluntarily! No it doesn’t make sense. Somalis, Iraqis, Afghanis, Eritreans and Iranians are in a similar situation.

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