The British Government is leaving the country’s so-called ‘forgotten refugees’ hungry and homeless, shocking new research has revealed.
In a new report published today, the Refugee Council exposes a chaotic system which could leave thousands of newly recognised refugees virtually abandoned by the Government which has committed to protecting them.
The Refugee Council’s research found:
- When their asylum claim is granted, refugees are given just 4 weeks to secure an income and somewhere to live before the Government evicts them from their asylum accommodation
- Newly granted refugees can apply for a one-off loan to help with integration, but Government admits it has ‘no target’ for processing these loans – though it ‘aspires’ to do so in 6 weeks – 2 weeks longer than refugees have before eviction.
- This results in many refugees becoming homeless and destitute. 81 of 100 of the new refugees surveyed by the Refugee Council were homeless or about to be when they came to us
- We estimate that these problems could have affected 9,768 refugees last year alone.
- Newly recognised refugees are being forced to rely on food banks, charities or friends for access to food, money and accommodation.
The experiences of these refugees are in stark contrast to those of the 20,000 Syrian refugees due to be resettled across the UK by 2020. Resettled refugees benefit from having accommodation secured in advance of their arrival, and receive specialist support to help them to access services, employment and to integrate into British life.
