Here's a piece that got published on the Quays News website:
At a time of increasing attacks on the British welfare system
I spoke to the organisers of one of the
few places of shelter for destitute people attempting the turbulent and
uncertain path to asylum in Greater Manchester, who this year are celebrating
ten years of crucial work in the community.
“Hold on, someone else has just turned up” shouts Mike Luft
to the team of volunteers about to drive back to their storage centre with the
project’s left-over food of the week. Late for the weekly drop-in service, the
man in question has walked for four hours in icy winds and rain from Salford to
Oldham to get to the project and collect the items that will help him survive
for the following seven days.
The desperation of the 70 or so people who attend the Oldham
Unity (Destitution Project) from around the region each week is stark. Founded
in 2002 by Luft and other members of the local community action network that
grew out of the aftermath of the 2001 Oldham riots the project is now one of
the largest frontline services for asylum seekers in Greater Manchester, with
around 20, mainly retired volunteers helping out each week. It provides subsistence
for those awaiting asylum appeal decisions who are struggling to survive on the
weekly living allowances granted by the government and others who find
themselves completely without aid after their appeals have been rejected.
Luft explained: “We realised at our community meetings with
local refugees and asylum seekers who live in the area that there was a massive
need for day-to-day help. Many of these people were not allowed to work,
couldn’t afford food or pay for accommodation so we decided to do what we could
to help.
“People can sometimes have a very distorted view of the
realities of asylum seekers in Britain. Not everyone knows about the meagre
amounts of £37.50 that adult asylum seekers live on each week, which sometimes
only comes in the form of a voucher that can only be used at certain shops.”
At the two hour drop-in visitors are given thirty “points”,
or roughly seven pounds, to spend on food and other essential items including
clothing that are bought with donations to the project and given by a mixture
of religious and secular organisations. A hot meal and refreshments are also
provided by a mix of local interfaith groups, such as the Baptist Church and
Planet Mercy whilst the British Red Cross covers their travel costs for up to
one year. Although recently having secured a deal with Fairshare, who
distributes food from local supermarkets to charities the project must still
find around £1500 each month to continue to run.
Whilst an integral part of the project, food is not the only
service provided by Oldham Unity. The drop-in acts as a crucial social space
for this part of the community for whom isolation and confusion are daily
occurrences. They provide practical legal advice to help people navigate the
complex asylum application process, access to free medical care, mentoring and
a safe space where people can socialise and share their experiences.
Luft himself is no stranger to the frustrations and hardships
surrounding claiming asylum, his grandmother a Jewish refugee from Russia and with
a past rooted in neighbourhoods of Manchester with large refugee populations.
“The people who come to us are not economic migrants, they
come to the UK in fear of their lives and the government should accept that and
actively help them. People have given up absolutely everything to escape
traumas and find a place of safety but sometimes I think the way they are dealt
with here is a complete affront to them.”
The lives of asylum seekers in the UK are ones epitomised by
being in a state of constant limbo. Fleeing to the country, they are met with a
disorientating, drawn-out asylum application process to become a refugee.
Although the UK receives fewer claims than the European
average, the following decision-making process is arduous, with rulings
sometimes taking up to several years to be made. Oldham Unity are aware of
situations where applicants have literally been forgotten about by the home
office, including one individual who waited more than ten years for a decision
to be made on his case.
Changes to legal aid paid to immigration lawyers, which has
introduced flat rates for some cases regardless of complexity, now means that
more people are losing access to some key advice services. This has made the
system a lot more bewildering for the many people who have no knowledge of the
UK’s legal process.
After such a lengthy process, most decisions only serve to
shatter asylum seekers hopes of acceptance, with 74% of cases being initially
refused according to the latest official data released in 2010. The decision to
make further appeals often wields little more success yet even these final,
outright rejections do not seal their fates.
“We have this crazy situation where people are turned down
for asylum but the government doesn’t deem it safe for them to return to their
own country. We see some people from Palestine, who because their country doesn’t
legally exist, they can’t be repatriated. They’re just completely ignored,
unable to live either here or in their home country”, said Luft.
“They can’t work and are only sometimes entitled to
temporary benefits under the government’s Section 4 asylum support.”
The realities of those who are successful are in many ways
no more secure. The general granting of an initial five year refugee status
makes it difficult to plan for the long-term, consigning refugees to a
foreseeable future of uncertainty and fear that is intensified by governmental
ability to have cases reviewed at any point during this time.
At the centre the volunteers are all too aware of the red-herring
that successful applications can signify. It can take up to six weeks to be
issued with a national insurance benefit number, in which time families are
left in virtual financial limbo, unable to claim state benefits such as job
seekers allowance or housing benefit and at the same time not legally allowed
to find employment. At this point the work of the project becomes even more
crucial for day-to-day survival.
Hopes for suitable and permanent housing are also far from
easy to ensure. One case the project is dealing with involves a family with six
children who upon being granted leave to remain in the UK were moved from the
temporary accommodation they had been living in for around four years to a
house in a different town. This has ignored the fact the family must now make
almost daily, long and unaffordable bus rides to take the children to the
school they enrolled in when they first moved to the country. They have since
had to move again due to receiving abuse from children in the area to a house
that some members of the project believe is not fit to live in. The delay in
processing the family’s national insurance numbers has meant that they have
only just been added to the social housing list, where they face tough and
lengthy competition for a house big enough to comfortably house the whole
family.
Nasreen, not her real name, is still waiting to hear a
decision from the government about her bid for refugee status. She spoke about
how the project provided her with a strong support network.
She said: “I had been living in the UK for about nine months
before I found out about the project. It
has helped me to understand and get access to the support that I’m
legally entitled to. Coming here has also helped me to meet lots of other
people in similar situations to myself and also form supportive relationships
with people who’ve been living in Oldham for a long time. I think it shows
communities working together at their best.”
Donations can be made to the Oldham Unity (Destitution
Project) c/o Baptist
Church Chaucer St.Oldham OL1 1BA. Those wanting to donate food and clothing
should contact
Stewart Bailey on 0161 652 2379.
