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Campaign of the Week: Let asylum-seekers work for a living

Lift the Ban, a coalition of more than 150 organisations and trade unions, is calling for the right to work for those seeking asylum in Britain after six months of having lodged a claim, writes CEREN SAGIR

PEOPLE seeking asylum can only work by applying to the Home Office for permission if they have been waiting for a decision on their claim for over 12 months.

And even then, they can only work for jobs that are on the restrictive government Shortage Occupations List for roles such as a classical ballet dancer and a nuclear medicine practitioner.

Otherwise, asylum-seekers are given just £5.39 per day to meet essential living costs.

Campaigners say that forcing people to live in poverty for large amounts of time whilst they wait for a decision has a detrimental impact on their physical and mental health.

Lift the Ban, a coalition of more than 150 organisations and trade unions, is calling for the right to work for those seeking asylum in Britain after six months of having lodged a claim, unconstrained by the Shortage Occupation List.

This would see the current 10,700 people waiting for a decision for at least six months benefit from the proposed changes.

Lift the Ban’s focus group participants often reported feeling “dehumanised and crippled” by the ban. One participant, known as “Faith,” said: “There were times I could not afford sanitary towels. I would walk into public toilets and steal toilet paper to use.”

The group is focusing on exploring parliamentary options for change, such as looking into the Immigration Bill and urging MPs for support, as well as pushing the Home Office for reform.

Opinion polls by Lift the Ban show that 71 per cent of the public strongly support asylum-seeker’s right to work, and 94 per cent of those with direct experience of the asylum process said they would like to work if permission was granted.

Fifty-two per cent of asylum seekers surveyed between August and September 2018 said they have had to use a foodbank within the past year.

Lift the Ban spokesman Paul Hook told the Star: “With support from businesses, MPs across the House of Commons, trade unions, and the majority of the public, we believe it’s now time for the government to change the rules so that people seeking asylum will be allowed to work.

“Doing so will help them escape the poverty trap, rebuild their lives, and give them the chance to integrate with and contribute to their local community.”

Lifting the current ban would significantly reduce the costs of keeping people on asylum support and could support Britain’s economy by £42.4 million per year through consumer spending and paying tax.

Trade Union Congress (TUC) general secretary Frances O’Grady, called the government’s ban “cruel and self-defeating.”

She told the Star: “We shouldn’t be wasting the talent and skills of these workers. People seeking asylum must be given the right to work and contribute — these damaging restrictions are in no-one’s interest and have to go.”

Lift the Ban says that common justifications for restricting access of asylum-seekers to the labour market is to stop a “pull factor” attracting people to apply for asylum in Britain rather than elsewhere, and to discourage “economic migrants.”

But the groups says researchers have widely discredited these ideas. One study commissioned by the Home Office shows that there is little evidence of a link between economic rights and destination choices.

Britain is considerably more restrictive than European Union countries, the US, Australia and Canada where the time lengths vary from nine months to one or no days.

You can sign the petition to Home Secretary Sajid Javid calling for the government to “stop wasting the talents of thousands of people” and give people the right to work on the Lift The Ban website. (www.lifttheban.co.uk)

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