Some asylum seekers fight to survive on less than £7 a day, and nearly all go hungry, says a new report.
Designed into the System: Poverty Among Asylum Seekers in the UK, states that 91 per cent of asylum seekers questioned cannot afford enough food. Eighty-one per cent regularly experienced hunger.
“Many adults reported having to skip meals themselves to prioritise feeding their children,” according to the report by the Daughters’ of Charity of St Vincent de Paul Services. Many families cannot pay “for the basics such as clothing, powdered milk and nappies”, said the Refugee Council, one of 45 sources cited in the report.
The Council added: “Most people seeking asylum are living in poverty and experience poor health and hunger.” In some cases, benefits received work out at “£6.43 per day.”
People from countries like Afghanistan, Iran and Syria frequently arrive in the UK with “only the clothes on their backs” added the report. “Even buying from second hand shops requires people to save up over a long period of time and go without other essential items”, it said. A lack of winter coats or shoes was a particular issue for families with children.
The St Vincent de Paul Society said asylum seekers lacked money for medicine, baby milk and bus tickets. Health was another major concern: many people arrived with “arrive with untreated injuries from their journey or chronic conditions from their home countries, and they are often exposed to communicable diseases”, according to information quoted in the report from the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
The Jesuit Refugee Service, another source cited in the 26-page report, described asylum accommodation as “gruelling, dehumanising and unsafe.” Overcrowding exacerbated “outbreaks of diphtheria, norovirus, and scabies”, in refugee accommodation, “as well as an alarming incidence of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts”, reported Human Rights Watch.
The legal ban on asylum seekers working often increases their mental health problems, rendering hem vulnerable to exploitation.
One woman cited in the report said: “I was introduced to some cash in hand jobs. But I became a slave to other people… I remember going to clean a woman’s house, I did six hours and she paid me just £10. People exploit you if they know your status.”
Changing the law to let asylum seekers work is one of several recommended changes to government policy in the report. Others included a “one-off grant”, for clothes for dispersed asylum seekers, which might be extended to cover travel and hygiene costs and other essentials.