Today, I led a Member's Debate around steps to prevent destitution in the asylum system, following a report by the Red Cross and the Refugee Survival Trust.
Financial Support
Asylum seekers often arrive with nothing at all. The system only affords an allowance of just over £5 a day. That's to cloth yourself. To feed yourself. To pay essential costs. Just over £5 a day.
The report calls for the Home Office to review the allowance to ensure it meets the rising cost of living.
This must happen.
Right to work
The right to work is a basic human right. To prevent asylum seekers the right to work is a act of self-harm against the social and economic interests of both Scotland and the UK.
UK Home Office policy means many asylum seekers are being driven into destitution rather than being permitted to make a contribution.
Travel
Along with colleagues across the Scottish Parliament we have pushed free bus travel for asylum seekers. It is to be welcomed that a travel support piolet us underway on how we can support people in the asylum process get access to the concessionary travel scheme.
Scottish Government support
The Scottish Government has confirmed it will continue to fund two important projects :
- The Diagnostic Legal Advice project led by the Scottish Refugee Council
- The Scottish Crisis Fund project delivered by the British Red Cross and a number of third sector partners, which can provide crisis grants to people facing destitution - included people with no recourse to public funds
I also raised concerns that young people in the asylum process leaving secondary schools seeking to go to university but are unable to take up places. I have been given reassurances I will be updated further on this matter by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills.
More Information
Read the report on the Red Cross website at:
Find out about services localy at the Maryhill Integration network:
https://maryhillintegration.org.uk/
Full text of motion:
How Will We Survive: Steps to Preventing Destitution in the Asylum System
That the Parliament notes the impact of the cost of living crisis on people seeking asylum in the Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn constituency, and across Scotland; further notes the research published by the British Red Cross and Refugee Survival Trust, How Will We Survive? Steps to preventing destitution in the asylum system; understands that the report was written by peer researchers with lived experience of the asylum system, through the Destitute Asylum Seeker Service; further understands that it outlines seven overarching recommendations, covering both the Home Office and Scottish Government, including that the Scottish Government should pilot a peer support system to ensure new arrivals through the asylum system can access support, guidance and friendship from people who have shared experiences of navigating the asylum system, that people with no recourse to public funds should have access to adequate support and increased access to health services, including mental health support, and that the Home Office should automatically grant people the right to work if they have been waiting for longer than six months for a decision on their initial asylum claim, or following the submission of further evidence, and that such a right should not be restricted to jobs on the shortage occupation list, and notes the view in the report that the Home Office should also offer an initial grant to asylum seekers to help them set up life in the UK, which it considers would lessen the likelihood of destitution.