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comments from readers

Derek Bennett
13 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

I would rather the New Statesman investigated the serious problem of our EU membership and the destruction of the UK due to it.

willoyen
13 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

public opinion on asylum is permeated eith and polluted by the tabloid view, with which the government falls in line. Lets have a reliable NS analysis...

lavinia moore
14 August 2008

The State of British Childhood

Two suggestions.
1. loss of liberties and privacy in the face of fear based obsession for controlling citizens, keeping more and more information on them and increasing legal contraints on their lives.
2. Population management.Why is the government afraid to notice the elephant in the room?

macfash
14 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

I think there should be an amnesty for asylum system and the backlog should be cleared as quickly as possible.

groothues
14 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

Asylum crisis: the way asylum seekers and refugees are treated in the UK raises the question: what kind of country do we want this to be?

Moh
14 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

I believe the current policy of the government regarding asylum seekers shows that asylum is no longer a human right matter i.e. the asylum seekers should not be treated in dignity and as humans. It is a serious issue! it is needed to be considered in great importance.

Almamy
14 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

I am writing a book on "De Jure Destitute"; Asylum seekers made destitute by law and have no recourse to public funds. The book, "Section 4 or Section "fool", what is wrong with treating people right?, is based on real tragedies, case studies, statistical evidence, recorded complaints, 466 asylum seekers interviewed between 2006 and 2007 and more than 500 photos and videos. The book shows how asylum seekers are exploited, mistreated and abused, and how accommodation providers are not suffering from the "credit crunch" by exploiting and abusing the system and the most vulnerable. The book explores the "barriers to legal entitlement of supports" and presents asylum seekers own experiences of seeking sanctuary in the UK (Is the UK a safe haven?) and wider voluntary sector's accounts and recommendations. For more info, contact almamytaal@yahoo.co.uk.

ZigZag
14 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

The destitution of asylum seekers in the UK is an important issue the deserves a decent investigation. I hope you guys at the Newstateman are up for producing good quality investigation about this today serious issue.

pcgardner
14 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

Not only destitution, but dawn raids, appalling detention conditions, and violence when asylum seekers are deported - all need to be investigated.

jws203
14 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

An investigation into the destitution of refused asylum seekers is all the more important given the extremely damaging and confused tabloid coverage which conflates illegal immigrants, asylum seekers, refugees and economic migrants - we need publications like the New Statesman to counteract this!

cksandiford
14 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

I strongly disagree with the government policy making failed asylum seekers destitute. These are human beings, and whether or not they are found to be entitled to stay in the UK, they should not be treated humanely. They should even be entitled to work until it is considered safe to be repatriated.

m0s3sw
15 August 2008

Lobbying

Asylum is a basic human right but seems to forget that! clear publictions will counteract this confusion

Nilsey105
15 August 2008

The State of British Childhood

Why not investigate those who have created the present financial crisis and why they are not behind bars locked up. There is a vast amount of evidence.

chrisd
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

The government's policy is contrary to natural justice. Refugees need protection. Pleas check out the practice of rewarding staff with big bonuses for getting refugees on a plane out of this country. This has resulted in violence against the most vulnerable.

adelaidedecice
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

People came here because they trusted us and we betray them

crispinhiley
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

It would be refreshing to see a non partisan review of the asylum issue which clearly highlights the truth about this matter rather than tabloid style speculation and hyperbole.

Dr C Hiley
Medicins Du Monde

Sabelo
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

Its sad to find that instead of freedom from fear people get poverty and are criminal records. GREAT Britain in 2000s!

Joanne Payton
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

No rescourse is a brutal and inhumane piece of legislation that leaves victims of domestic violence destitute. This needs to be investigated and reformed.

Musu
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

I have been profoundly shocked by the way our Asylum system is operating. People escape here because we have a reputation for upholding human rights, the reality is far from that.

Anne
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

We work with Asylum seekers. We think they should have the right to work, and that the home Office should speed its bureaucracy up. Our friends are left destitute, very unsure of their futures, helpless without money and ignorant of the law which leads to more difficulties with the law over traffic offences,... or TV licenses.... all sorts. NAS is being totally unsympathetic in our area to the plight of asylum seekers. Please investigate this and get the government to provide better options and clearer rules and opportunity to work instead of hang around on minimum benefit if they get anything. Many are just left in limbo. Britain once was great apparently. It had a Christian ethic. Now it is pathetic in its care.

sheila
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

Refugees, or people who want refugee status (now called asylum seekers), are desperate to be able to work. They feel dehumanised and deskilled by being sidelined and having to be dependent. Please investigate this stange situation where people can be made destitute as well, and still not allowed to work.

bag lady
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

in many cases people come 'here' because 'we' are or have been in their countries.
People say 'our' economy can't support too many asylum applicants... but where do they think 'our' wealth came from in the first place? To a large extent we are sitting on stolen goods.
Amina

jeninswan
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

the waste of resources is staggering - when everyone else is forced off benefits we keep people on them. Many of these people are desperate to set up businesses - businesses that would employ people. When we have doctors, dentists, nurses,teachers, university lecturers, translators, computer specialists, journalists, mathematicians etc all forced to stay at 70% dole - while we are short of those skills - the whole system seems crazy.

Kate
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

An investigation into the asylum system is much needed and much overdue. I have just this minute received a call from an kurdish asylum seeker who was released from detention yesterday after a disgraceful 22 months. He will though now be relying on the charity of friends to give him accommodation and food, as the support system provided by the government agency leaves asylum seekers isolated, vulnerable and with inadequate lodgings, and basic needs unfulfilled. The forced detention and destitution of asylum seekers are a moral outrage that shames the UK.

mdillonhiggins
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

My family has gone through the hands of the British Immigration system and it is a travesty. This was concerning my nephew and it took 12 years of a young man's life to resolve issues, in the meantime he was not allowed to work, to live, because to live is to work. He was fortunate to have a family to depend on. This has made me meet loads of not only asylum seekers but individuals with immigration issues and they are suffering. A person's right to work, eat even married are being taken away by the policies which the British government is adopting. Very soon the world is going to follow the example set by Britain and impose restrictions on where go. British people can go all over the world and live, work stay mainly without restrictions why do they not want that for others as well. How can you deny a person the right to work and then call them illegal. Is it illegal to work? There is also a great shortage of skills and people to work in this country so why not give someone to right to enjo the short life span that humans have on this earth. The current system is so wrong that nothing good can come out of it. It is a system like this that breds hatred and resentment. I am not necessarily saying that they should be given benefits per se but all peersons should have the right to work. If the Home Office is taking years to decide a case then let the person work while they wait have you not seen 'The Terminal' one of the things that Viktor (Tom Hanks) did was work to earn a living. The Government should take note.

Dee Coombes
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

Asylum seekers have become the scapecoats of the British goverment and media. They mostly get poor representation in a system that is weighted against them. The BIA is frequently working on inaccurate/outdated information and when more than 70% of applicants are refused they are frequently left to choose whether to beg, starve, or work illegally. What would you do? I know I wouldn't choose starvation. If they choose to work illegally and they're caught, they get sent to prison and will probably never escape from detention again whilst they remain here. It's a rotten, shameful system.

Keith Best
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

It is a scandal that in a civilised society we can so discriminate against those to whom we owe an international obligation thus blighting their lives and their opinion of Britain. We cannot be nor are the repository of all refugees in the world - indeed we accept very few as a percentage of the whole - but those who come shd expect decency and humanity, not destitution and despicable behaviour which besmirches the name of the UK: in doing this the Government demeans not only itself but all British residents.

comtessa
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

I am campaigning for a Cameroonian man who is currently fighting deportation. The Home Office accepts that he has been tortured in his home country, that he was involved with the opposition party there. There has been no regime change there since he left. However it is willing to return him to Cameroon, along with his wife (also Cameroonian, also imprisoned and tortured) and three young children.
Nick Clegg MP rightly said at a recent meeting in Sheffield that asylum should be seperated from politics in order for it to become fair and fit for purpose.
Another man, from Eritrea, will be separated from his Eritrean wife and two-week old daughter in one month's time when the Home Office tries to deport him on 19 September. He is technically a "foreign criminal" because he dared to work when he was made destitute, and spent three months in prison for this crime of trying to support himself.
Self-harm incidents in detention centres are on the increase, and healthcare is denied to asylum seekers.
This is an area that needs serious investigation. This is a stain on Britain's human rights record. People protested about the detention of terrorism suspects - yet few of us realise that seeking asylum is not, and never has been a crime, but that asylum seekers can be detained, indefinitely, at any time, for no reason other than having left their own country to seek sanctuary here.

jackie fearnley
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

I want my income tax to be used to fund asylum seekers so that they do not have to endure further dreadful hardship when they come to this country. I also think they should be allowed to work where this is possible - e.g. not get penalised for playing football for a team where gate money is charged.
If we were treated as we treat them we would be outraged. We are fortunate that we do not have to go through torture or seeing our relatives killed. I do all I can to help because I do not want this neglect and lack of resources to be in my name. Vast amounts of money are wasted keeping people incarcerated - and presumably vast profits are made out of this business. I am interested in the doings of Serco - who also run Fylingdales - the missile defence radar base. How do contracts get awarded and who is gaining from this situation? Why does it make sense to encourage so many economic migrants yet persist in returning people to dangerous situations, that they may not even survive?

Robin Richardson
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

Very anxious about people seeking asylum who are destitute, and about children and young people who are separated from their family.

Clare
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

I am horrified that asylum seekers are being routinely deported from the UK without having been able to access adequate legal advice in order to get a fair hearing. They appear to have all the odds stacked against them, including an automatic presumption that their claims are not likely to be credible. I am especially concerned about women who have suffered serious gender-related persecution in their countries of origin and are being returned to dangerous domestic situations or to countries where they have no remaining support network, often with young children. These cases include women attempting to escape from sexual abuse, domestic violence, arranged and forced marriages, trafficking, female genital mutilation (FGM) and family disputes arising from “honour” crimes. The callous disregard shown to desperate individuals whose principal misfortune is to have been born in the wrong place at the wrong time demeans us all.

Bon
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

It’s apparent that the mismanagement of our Immigration and Asylum Policies is an issue that needs urgent attention for the sake of our image, long-term social cohesiveness and prosperity as a nation built on a strong sense and pride of diversity.

eobon01
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

Britain is a very racist and xenophobic nation full of bigots and sadists who derive pleasure from seeing helpless immigrants suffer destitution in the very racist and xenophobic immigration system, even the nazis were better at least they were upfront unlike the British who hide their racism and hypocrisy while blaming counties like Russia and China for human rights violations yet they are not any better than these countries as far as human rights are concerned.

Deborah Harvey
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

It is impossible to explain to people refused asylum why the British government thinks it acceptable to try to deport them to countries where our soldiers or nationals aren't safae- Afghanistan, Iraq and Zimbabwe. It seems that the Labour government has given up on a fair or just system- and now just wants to starve people into leaving. I never thought I would see a LABOUR government be so biased and vindictive against the most vulnerable and dispossesed members of our society. Shame on them.

Abraham
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

I am an asylum seeker from cote d'ivoire and have just been left destitute since 3 weeks with my wife,3 month pregnant and 2 boys twins of 3 years old both born here in birmingham.I am actually being supported by christians friends; being almost force to beg around to feed my chidren.My first sollicitor completely gave up on me! Here is the true face of this system

devon nightingale
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

BIA is in disarray, routinely losing documents, failing to prepare cases, sending rejection letters which talk at length about the wrong country. Their logic is appalling e.g. one case NCADC highlighted yesterday had been refused on the grounds that, although he produced newspaper coverage of his anti-govt activities, thsi could not be relied on owing to widespread fraud in Cameroon! (This despite plenty of corroborative evidence. HOPOs rtoutinely stand up in court and say, basically, 'you say your child was the product of rape but if that was true you wouldn't be so bonded with it'! Meanwhile the destitution of asylum seekers, who often have totally legitimate reasons, accepted even by HO, for not returning, is an absolute disgrace and brings nothing but shame on a country which used to welcome those fleeing persecution. Asylum seekers MUST be allowed to work! Many are highly qualified and have much to offer. It would be good for their mental health and good for Britain. But the govt and the Daily Mail then couldn't vilify them as scroungers. And no, I do not believe this is excessively cynical.

Esther Angel
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

Leaving people cut off and without any help is a direct violation of their basic human rights and a complete scandal! Asylum seekers are human beings and most if not all of them have suffered unimaginable trauma. They need care, acceptance, help to integrate, not to be thrown out on the streets.

palestin_24
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

In 1948 Britain gave my country palestine to israel and i became refugee since that date ,i came to uk in 2004 and applied for asylum but britain refused to grant me asylum even im a refugee registered with United Nation and im stateless and moreover im refugee because of britain action in 1948
thank you
rami abdel rahim

superhoop
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

Those same UK politicians who decry the human rights record of other countries remain silent when the discussion turns to asylum seekers in Britain. I met with my local MP to discuss a family threatened with removal. I was told, in almost these words, that supporting this family would lose votes at the next election. Due process, fair hearing, human rights count for nothing in the hands of people who have used the populist vote to influence their political imperative. The fact that the family were not supporting themselves financially was also used against them. This is despite the fact that they are unable to work under the terms of their claim. Legal advice for asylum seekers depends on good fortune or the good connections of supporters, rather than right. The asylum crisis is the way that people who deserve our support and friendship are being made to live in situations that place them at extreme risk. A full debate needs to be held. We need to be able to discuss all sides of the debate, not just that of the scaremongers

Pro-Asylum
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

People who are interested in asylum and immigration and its awful and vile reality in this so-called civilised country should read a superb book by Hsiao-Hung Pai called "Chinese Whispers: The True Story Behind Britain's Hidden Army of Labour". This explains magnificently well just how desperate life is for people who are pretty much forced to slave their guts out and sometimes even die for hawkish employers who totally take advantage of their illegal status. Let them who have an open mind read that and see just what it is like. Hsiao-Hung went undercover to do these jobs (working in a Chinese restaurant, doing work on a farm, meat-processing in factories, you name it) in order to see just how living and working is like for members of the reviled army of undocumented labour in this country. It is not a pretty sight, and yet the Chinese people whom Hsiao-Hung got to know over those years of brilliant research are a fascinating array of characters, whose story Hsiao-Hung tells incredibly well - with pathos, power and not a hint of bravery herself, as what she was doing was very dangerous for her, had she been discovered. Read this book! There is no better book on the people who are subject to this noxious phenomenon that is often referred to as globalisation from above: meaning, in short, those who are imposing more and more the neo-liberal agenda that pays little money and even less respect to, in this case, the outcast workers of China, who are simply looking for a living for themselves and their families. Shame on those who support the government in their continued and relentless drive to squeeze and impoverish people in these kinds of situations, whether those who are seeking asylum or those who are simply working here in breach of ‘the law’ (which in this respect is absolutely an ass). There needs to be an amnesty for all asylum seekers and undocumented workers in this country to bring them into line with working conditions for everyone else in this country. Only this meets the base minimum definition of what it would mean for the UK to be a civilized society. We must enforce a living wage of 8 pounds per hour for all, which includes those about whom Hsiao-Hung writes so sympathetically in her excellent exposé of the rotten underbelly of the decaying society we are living in... The book is from Penguin and is only £8.99!

miriam1
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

3 people removed from the UK to the iraqi kurdistan have committed suicide within days of return, more recently a man living in the UK for 8 years was removed to Kurdistan after fifty days in detention. He shot himself within 2 days of return. Last week a Kurdish man with terminal cancer, wh was destitute after his asylum claim had been refused, died in a hospice in the UK - why is it that we are not paying attention to the desparation that people are feeling? How is it that we do not look compassionately into the lives of people who would rather die thousands of miles from their family, living in destiotution and in a largely rascist society , chose to remain in this situation rather than return to their country of origin. An increasingly punitive and inquisitorial Immigration system is making it harder and harderto prove cases of oppression, torture and other fears for lfe, described by people claiming asylum, yet dying in destitution is preferable. In Nottingham this week, a destitute Congolese man in his mid thirties also died, rather than return home. What is wrong wih us that we, as a society, permit our Government to enact legislation that commits people to this life? We should seriously investigate what happened to compassion in the UK.
Miriam H.

dvinnell
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

In particular the inhuman treatment of making destitute
refused asylum seekers who are unable to return to thier country.

paurina
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

Our government is continuing the torture that so many asylum seekers have come here to escape . It is shameful that this is done in our name, especially as a large part of the problems faced by asylum seekers in their countries of origin can be traced back to British imperialism.

Roma
15 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

Stop the war which asylum sekers

jad
16 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

The suffering of those who come to us to seek genuine refuge, claiming asylum is then extended by the uncertainty they face as the British Government slowly decide their fate ...

dani mills
16 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

I have watched genuine asylum seekers give up hope after their dreams of peace are shattered through destitution, uncertainty and abuse in the UK. They have no fight left in them when their time comes to get on the plane back to persecution. Then the Home Office has won... but human rights and justice have not.

Philip Spender
16 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

The inhumane treatment of asylum seekers is shameful. The effect of current policies on individual asylum seekers needs to be better known - this would increase the pressure for change.

colindyer2006
16 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

The vast majority want to work and pay their way. The government are so afraid of loosing votes in the inner cities that they condemn asylum seeks to abject poverty. What a crazy system paying out extremely basic support to people who want to work and pay taxes. All this government cares about is loosing votes. To make an obvious point they have already lost them. How can any government force asylum seekers back into the hands of the Taliban and Robert Mughbe?

M. Bernstein
16 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

Smash all borders! Freedom of movement and the right to work for all!

01142350489@talktalk.net
16 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

Every day of every week and month and year we are trying as a registered charity to cope with the devastation inflicted on traumatised people by British Government policy on asylum. It is the great scandal of our time.
The present Government and its supporters seem to be composed of 2 groups of people: those without imagination or compassion who justify with harsh comments their outrageous policies and attitudes; and those who admit their policies cause misery but blame it all on public opinion created by the media.
There are hundreds of thousands of innocent people driven into destitution, living in the margins of our economic and social life, fearing deportation to persecution, torture and death, as a consequence of our Home Office's "culture of disbelief", which labels so many as being "not credible witnesses" to their own misfortune.
There are also large numbers locked up and detained, including children, who have committed no crime, except to come to a country which shames itself by its ignorance and lack of compassion.
Investigate Prince Charles or Conservative Party funding? What an inglorious waste of time and energy! Get your priorities right.
Richard Chessum
Sheffield

Frances Ballin
16 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

We must not tolerate living in a society that accepts oppressive legislation which directly results in the destitution and degradation of completely innocent people, compounding the wrongs they have already suffered in their own countries.

jean
16 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

The illegal actions of the British government towards asylum seekers are causing misery to thousands of genuine seekers of sanctuary and distorting public opinion so that to many all asylum seekers are either "bogus" or "failed".

loylok
16 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

allow them to work and contribute into the GBR economics for good.

Exiledjournalist
16 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

If people have freedom of movement all over the world, everyone will become sympathatic with each other

Johnsmith
16 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

Ok! now we all know that the United Kingdom is among the top protests against China's Human Rights records specifically on the freedom of Tibet, many evidence can confirm this, from the UK's Prime Minister boycotting the 2008 China's Olympic games by refusing to attend its opening ceremony, to the two british citizens arrested in China after leading protests, in China's home land, against China's Human Rights records. The list is long.
If the UK calls China to improve its Human Rights records, this means the UK's Human Rights records are great. Which is not the case.
The United Kingdom say to be one of the most civilized
country has its Human Rights records deteriorated with the following examples:
- The UK asylum system struggles to follow the Human Rights legislation and thinking to amend it so this can reduce the number of people to protect, in order to satisfy the anti-asylum seekers feeling on certain people.

- The Human Rights acts say: No one should be prevent a right to work. However many asylum seekers waiting decisions for years, yet still can't get right to work despite the fact that they are not responsible in the delay occured on the process of their application.

- An asylum seeker can be detained without a limit of time, while a terrorist suspect has to go on trial after a limit of time or released.
Many asylum seekers are arrested repeatedly or detain for a long period which has caused to many of them serious helth problems.

- Many asylum seekers are being denied health care treatment because of any status, and many have died

- Many do not have a place to sleep or even food and are forced to leave on the streets or from friends to friends

- Many are forced to report to an Immigration centre every week, every two weeks, every month, every tree months etc, and this for many years, wow!

Let's say the list is too long,
If people think London Olympic games are going to be a success as far as Human Rights issues concern, then they are dreaming too much, as strong evidence on poor UK's human rights records, including the treatment of asylum seekers, are being gathered by China for a strong retaliation, we only have 4 years to improve in order to avoid a failure.

Therefore this area must be investigated and NOW before it's too late

r.f.spooner
16 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

in Sheffield , City of Sanctuary, all the local counsellors are supportive of the call to allow asylum seekers to work. Nick clegg recently addressed a packed meeting in Sheffield - subject Human rights for Migrants in UK - and both supported this and the reform of the adjudication process to be independant and supervised by UNHCR. It was also noted that the gangmaster problem re EU migrants was being effectively ignored by Government, and is equally deserving of media attention.

Penelope
16 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

Asylum seekers have a right to seek refuge in a safe country. Host countries have an obligation to treat asylum seekers decently, and refrain from locking them up in "centres" which are really prisons.

makrigialos
16 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

we are rich. they are poor, disadvantaged and in need. also maybe naive. but how can we turn our backs on these people who - in effect - are our neighbours

chitakuv
16 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

i think there should be a system where an asylum seeker is given temporary permission to work whilst their case is being reviewed up until they are given an ultimatum to leave the country or granted leave to remain, otherwise it's inhumane for someone to live without a source of income @ least they are not milking the rest of the people on benefits...

cabinda
17 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

Asylum Crisis
The policy on International protection for Asylum seekers is a complete failure as results of promoting human wrong instead of promoting human rights.

Noa K
17 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

It is apalling to meet asylum seekers who have fled war, rape, torture, starvation and the death of friends and family and whose suffering has been exacerbated by Home Office cynicism and public hostility

constance
17 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

ok! we all know that u.k like to protest against human rights but here in uk home office are mistreating fail asylum seeker so do not point the finger to chine or mugabe because the ways they are treating the foreigner are not faire.
constance M

Sarah.Cemlyn@bris.ac.uk
17 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

The destitution of asylum seekers, and their often brutal treatment in detention and deportation is an outrage and needs urgent exposure and action

xen
17 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

look up the story of Baby C, starved for 18 hours at Yarlswood detention centre (details available from M Gallagher of Nursing Matters). Its one amongst many - if we want to retain our reputation as upholders of Human rights, we have to ensure that we are upholding the human rights of adults and children coming to the UK too.

alice
17 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

Asylum Crisis, how long shall we have to look while people suffer in a 1st world country (Redemption song by Bob Marley). Asylum seekers are put in camps like Jews during the holocaust with no hope of anything, treated like non-humans, discriminated in the community with no work, shelter, access to service. What difference then is Britain with what Hitler did to the Jews, when a certain minority of people are discriminated against and persecuted when they are running away from persecution. its time the camps are closed, they are beyond human standard.

Alice

Edward Egan
17 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

Asylum seekers should be allowed to earn a living, support British society and be part of a prosperous society while they await their application to live in UK and not be returned to a country of poverty or oppression.

gayleshaw
17 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

asylum seeker of all people need to be able to work, they are by definition in the worst possible financial circumstances. The immigration service frequently makes mistakes about who can return to their country of origin, and the returnee pays the consequences.

Pencils
17 August 2008

Prince Charles

The rest of these topics have been, and are, investigated to death everywhere else.

innonkung
17 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

British and other western countries must stop their hypocrisy towards those seeking asylum because these people come from where they are plundering their resources and making was as a pretext. They ought to be given sanctuary here until we let them free in their own countries.

KD
17 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

One of the worst things about the asylum process is the waiting. Today Samuel Beckett could have written a play called...'Waiting for the Home Office to make a decision on my case' or 'Waiting for the Home Office to remove me from the UK'. Not so catchy, but still just as absurd. The uncertainty and delay that results from Home Office inaction means that failed asylum seekers must be given the opportunity to work. It gives them something to do, a way of focusing their minds, perhaps even a feeling of self-worth. It is the least this government can do.

sharronaram
17 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

I am a British citizen, my husband is not able to stay with me in the uk unless he leaves the uk & applies to enter the uk from outside (he is iraqi & has no British embassy in his country), he has to go to another country, where he may not be allowed to enter to make his application if they allow him in, yet if I was from an EU nation other than Britain i.e. France, Polish etc, he could stay in the UK with me. This is discrimination against UK citizens.

rjonesa
18 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

The way asylum seekers are being treated, especially those who have exhausted the legal system makes me ashamed to be British.
The Home Office claim that they must enforce a consistent immigration policy. No doubt similar statements were made by the authorities of the time who exported convicts to Australia and those who thought it honerable to separate "vulerable" children from their parents and deport them to Australia too.
Roger Jones

Paul Johnson
18 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

The way those who's asylum cases are rejected is inexcusable. It is only the tip of the iceburgh, the application of the "right to reside test " and "habitual residence test" leave many to face destitution. It brings shame on our nation and make and makes a mockery on anti pverty strategies.

sheila.melzak@zen.co.uk
18 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

Having worked with young asylum seekers and refugees over the last twenty years it is clear that their recovery from experiences of organised violence,corruption and torture is interfered with by the fact that there are so many barriers to their integration into British society and to their access to studies in university and to work.Asylum seeking children and adolescents arriving without parents and at the same time young people in families are marginalised and kept on the edge of the community rather than being able to find work and to develop and contribute to community life.Asylum seekers are treated in a degrading and humiliating way when they could be seen as a resource for the community and treated with respect. Individuals who arrive in Britain as foreigners after experiences of human rights abuses, could be seen as a social resource to enrich our communities. I work with many young people who arrived in Britain between five and seven years ago after experiences of extreme violence over many months.Many still have not had their asylum claim resolved and they live in a limbo situation at the edges of the community. These facts do not fit with any progressive morality.

rainman
18 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

It's really terrible what is happening in this country at the moment with regards to asylum seekers. They are not being treated as people, but as problems. Something needs to change to make the system more efficient and just. Just last week I heard of someone who died of cancer who was fighting to stay here. It so often seems they do not have a voice. Please can someone change something!

galvarino
18 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

Asylum seekers are bearing the brunt of an orchestrated negative campaign, with destitution and homelessness reaching crisis point.they are being targeted as scapegoats for the failures of a government who is pandering to right wing media barons. It is disgraceful and shoking

rezawashahi
18 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

There are asylum seekers like me who are here more than 5 years. Our youth spent behind close doors of hearing courts and home office. Even in future if we will be accepted to become a citizen with what we went through, we could not study properly and then as a result we will not be able to put some thing back to the society. Mental health problem is wide spread between asylum seekers. When you are all the time waiting on some one to raid your accommodation to take you back to the dark tyranny government, you are no longer normal person. This will affect you. Both side would be the losers, we as the asylum seekers who loosing our youth and opportunity for education and normal life and Tax payers money.

shiva
18 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

] I came to UK 7 years ago and now its near 5 years who i am homeless and havent any work permit as well. I have not any familly here. I dont know how many times during this 5 years via my soliciter I asked form home office to consider my new application!! and now i got nothing. just ignore. i am edjucated, proffetionl woman, but its near 7 years I am finding my self in the situation that I never imagined.

jude hawes
18 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

I work with asylum seekers and refugees. I have worked in welfare rights for nearly 30 years and I have never come across a situation like this in all that time. It is cruel and inhumane, but also is disasatrous in policy terms: As a result peolpe disappear and so cannot be counted or removed, and it pushes peolpe to support themselves in whatever way they can. As such it is bopund to criminalise some and put the most vulnerable at risk of exploitation.

Stu
18 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

There is a war on asylum seekers by the Labour Government. Which other group is denied the right to work, has restricted access to healthcare, is subject to arbitrary detention and forced deportation? At least the Labour Government could be honest and admit that it has declared war on asylum seekers, while allying itself with big business interests (some of which profit directly from the detention/deportation industry).

Stuart Crosthwaite, Sheffield

dawson0051.freeserve.co.uk
18 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

My observation of a number of asylum-seekers who have been refused anykind of refugee status is that they have not been given adequate judicial process. They are given 5 hours legal aid in preparation for their initial interview wityh the Home Office but they are not represented during the Interview itself. A lawyer may take up their case for the subsequent tribunal but the lawyer has to judge whether or not he will be re-imbursed by the Legal Service Commission - to do so he has to reckon on a 40% success rate. Even those with friends who can pay legal fees privately, it is often difficult for asylum-seekers to retrieve evidence from their home country, partly they are not thinking of that when they are escaping and partly because once in UK they don't want to endanger their relativesin the procurement of evidence.
Andrew Dawson, Oldham

tony eaton
18 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

Destitution is not a policy option, if only because the attitudes it engenders are so corrosive of the society we are trying to protect. The question of numbers entering must be kept separate from the way people are treated once they are here.

eye
18 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

Refugees and asylum seekers are the conscience of the world. Their treatment is inmoral, shame on you British Governement.

Mahamad Al Shagra
18 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

A desperate & frightend person is compeld to seek refuge in a comfertable & safe place...After he finds such a place & is tretead better for some time ...But if you were unlucky he becomes a destitute person in this safe haven !!!

Derek Turnham
19 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

From my personal experience the treatment of asylum seekers and refugess in the UK is a little short of a 'war crime'. We have set up systems that not only treat refugees brutally but which are brutalising UK society and creating a class of people in the civil service who are capable of 'consentration camp' like atrocities.

Abang Tambe
19 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

Asylum Crisis
The treatment of asylum seekers and refugess in the UK is like a 'war crime'. The government has set up systems that not only treat people seeking sanctuary brutally but which are brutalising UK society and creating a class of people in the civil service who are capable of 'consentration camp' like atrocities.
Tambe

Michael
19 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

Our experience of the treatment of asylum seekers in this country makes us ashamed to be British. We have witnessed people trying to live on food vouchers. Men, women and children are treated cruelly especially during enforced removal. The people we know would be a credit to this country if they were allowed to work and contribute to the economy whilst awaiting decisions to be made. We have also witnessed delaying tactics in the legal process but speed in the process of arrest, removal and deportation.
Michael and Eleanor Garrity

annys
19 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

The treatment of 'failed' asylum seekers in this country is outrageous. People who have often fled recently from torture are not allowed to work or begin in any way to rebuild their lives and are often physically attacked when forcibly removed. Children are detained in appalling conditions. Many people are starting to speak out against the way 'failed' asylum seekers are treated but may not have the knowledge to understand how unfair that so-called failure usually is. As an experienced asylum caseworker I am enraged every time I see the phrase 'failed asylum seeker'. Most of the people I know who have 'failed' have good cases under the terms of the 1951 Convention and/or the European Convention on Human Rights. We should be challenging the culture of disbelief, the demanding of evidence which could never possibly be obtained, the reliance on politically slanted and ludicrously inaccurate country information, the absolutely unfair weighting of the system against those who claim asylum in our country.
Anny S

Revd John Rogers
19 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

There are those of us who remain concerned at the human rights abuses suffered by those in China who are persecuted by the authorities behind the glitz of the Bejing Olympics.
As the UK prepares for the 2012 Olympics - will our human rights atrocities and abuses of those seeking asylum be put under the spotlight of the international community?

DRH
19 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

It is sad that we are involed in hurting the soul and Psyche of some brave and wonderful people
by designing a legally complex system
by putting the onus of proof on the asylum seeker
by refusing legal aid to them
by refusing them the dignity of supporting themselves
by holding them in detention centres that lack the medical, social, educational, and religious services that are normal in British prisons
by insisting on maintaining them from public funds so playing into the hands of the BNP and others
by behaving as if they were semi human human beings.

The latst people to do this on a big scale were the Serbs at Trebliniska and the Third Reich with the disabled, the leftwing, the Gypsies and the Jews. Yet in most cases these are poeple who were in the forfront of the fight for democarcy and freedom in their country. These were people who risked their lives for the reasons we gave for invading Iraq
..freeedom...
democaracy...
justice...
removal of a despot....
How did we get to the point of condoning this policy & programme..
It is a deeply wounding policy that wounds both victim and oppressor.

David ...Leeds

robinstevenson
19 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

I am appalled at the brutality of a British Government that that can leave many thousands of people destitute and in fear of being rounded up and sent to places of even greater danger than here. Detailed information about the current situation, and the range of options that could be followed would be a great service to us all.

kazadi
19 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

treat vulnerable people with dignity

Rick
19 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

an absolute scandal that a wealthy, developed nation can treat other human beings in such a disgraceful way- i am appalled and ashamed

Tom Cole
19 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

the state and its' institutions are meant to uphold and protect rights and freedoms inherent to each and every human being. asylum seekers are being targeted because of their vulnerability, and this is a crime. Treat vulnerable people with dignity.

bugginsturn
19 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

This continuing appalling behaviour towards some of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable people is one of the (all too many) things which has made me ashamed to have been a Labour supporter in recent times - not since 1999!

alisonw1
20 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

The British Governme3nt's treatment of asylum seekers is inhuman. This makes me an accessory to this treatment and I STRONGLY OBJECT

fabien
20 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

what the gourvement think for asylum on the street involve in froud or give them right to work

gallirose
20 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

Not just the ban on working but the entire asylum estate needs investigating. We who are involved can give you horror stories that are hard to believe.

JimP
20 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

Asylum seekers are much mis-represented in the media. Most deserve our support, acceptance and a real chance to contribute to our community. Denial of access to health care is not only contrary to basic human rights but also means TB or HIV infected asylum seekers are an unnecessary additional health risk to all of us.

pauline scutt
21 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

The way in which asylum seekers are treated - and in particular those who have failed in their bid to get asylum in this country - is a huge blot on our reputation as a civilised nation. No one would uproot themselves unless they had suffered great trauma in their homeland - yet they are treated worse than criminals . The plight of the failed asylum seeker is especially harrowing - particularly as most have been conditioned to distrust and fear the destitute.

jamiealexanderoneill
22 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

I have seen pregnant women left destitute and sometimes even children. There is no need for forced destitution in our 'civilized' society.

Cinaed
23 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

The policy of destitution and the way asylum seekers are treated in the UK highlights the underdevelopment of welfare and legal provisions, of the UK aparthied asylum system. It is urgent that the New Statement and other progressive media CONTINUE to highlight the plight of people that have took flight and have sought sanctury, who are inappropriately socially constructed and treated a third class persons.

Lynn
24 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

Please bring this to the attention of the public at large. The majority of people do not know the truth and are shocked when they find out.

Eira
25 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

A civilised society treats ALL people in a civilised fashion: so are we civilised or not? That is the question.

Mea68
26 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

We need to get real about human rights and until this issue is highlighted and rectified we will be unable to. Human rights are for everyone not just those who are prominent and visible!

C Briddick
26 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

I am particularly concerned about the position of women and children who are in the position of being failed asylum, unable to return to their country or origin and are destitute. Through me work I have heard about women who have been pressured into prostitution and other abusive relationships because they have been unable to provide food or accommodation for themselves of their children. For this to happen in a 1st work country is deplorable and a failure of moral leadership.

Trish
26 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

With the oppression of regimes that deny human rights, many asylum seekers have little opportunity to bring evidence for the fast track of the NAM process and "fail" for lack of credibility. Their mental health suffers and then destitution leaves them with little hope and without employment opportunity a degrading and inhuman existence legally applied to further their mental torture. That's not what I vote for as a citizen! Trish

Barry Tomlinson
27 August 2008

Asylum Crisis

I'm ashamed of the way my country treats desperate and vulnerable refugees. And I'm appalled at the way this issue is treated in the popular press. So I really hope the NS selects the Asylum crises for investigation.

DCarins
28 August 2008

Lobbying

I suspect that this vote has been hijacked by immigration watch or a similar organisation.

Why do you have to have a poll? Can't the editor just decide?

Plebiscites and polls and surveys like this are meaningless as they are a) open to abuse and b) simply tell you what people think they want to think rather than what they actually think, which is more accurately measured by where they put their money.

If you ran an investigative article on the asylum crisis and received higher sales and positive feedback then you'll know that was the best course of action.

Public participation is a crock of shit. Please, just use your expert knowledge. That's why we buy the mag and that's why you get paid.