I’ve just returned from a few days’ work trip to the Sud Tyrol area of Italy, where I had to try to overcome my fear of heights in order to do both this:

and this:

It’s tough at the cutting edge but someone’s got to do it.

Back to reality, I wrote a comment piece on last week’s Independent Asylum Commission report which I tried to get used elsewhere, to no avail. It’s now a bit late, but still.

LAST week’s warning that the UK asylum system is “marred by inhumanity” will not have come as news to anyone who has had dealings with it – or who sat through the hearings of the Independent Asylum Commission (IAC).
The panel – co-chaired by former Appeals Court judge Sir John Waite and featuring a bishop and a human rights campaigner – gathered evidence at a series of hearings across the country, each of which focused on a different aspect of the system.
Their interim report pulled no punches when it found the treatment of those who seek sanctury in this country fell “seriously below” the standards of a civilised society.
Vilification of refugees and asylum seekers is now so ubiquitous within the British media – and indeed society – that it’s all too easy to ignore the very human tragedies of those involved.
The Manchester event – which I sat through – was a harrowing look at the issue of destitution, through the eyes of those who have experienced it.
Those who come to Britain for safety become destitute if there are delays during the asylum process or when their case is turned down. Then, benefits, accomodation and free healthcare are withdrawn if they refuse to voluntarily return home – regardless of whether they are appealing.
With no recourse to public funds, and no right to work, most slip through the net. There are known to be at least 1,000 destitute asylum seekers in Greater Manchester alone.
But for one day these people were given a voice, and what they said shocked the more naïve among us. These weren’t all slippery “bogus” social parasites determined to weasel their way into this country and bleed us dry with a lifetime on benefits.
They were normal people who had fled unspeakable horrors in their homelands and then slipped through our system due to oversights, human error and sheer bad luck.
Many had been finally awarded refugee status here following appeals and months – or even years – on the streets or relying on handouts from charities and friends. But a handful of witnesses were still destitute.
We heard from an Ethopian woman how she had to change solicitor seven times, and was made destitute before finally being granted sanctuary in Britain.
We learned that a 70-year-old Somalian woman who speaks no English and suffers from arthritis and a gastric condition slept on friends’ floors and sofas and lived on vouchers for nine months while her case was processed.
A 47-year-old torture survivor from Dafur told how he slept at Manchester’s train and tram stations and in subways after being told to return to Sudan. His asylum case was eventually accepted.
Few in their right mind would argue that all asylum seekers should be ultimately be allowed to stay in the UK. But critics say the government deliberately uses destitution as a tool to force asylum seekers to return home, regardless of whether their country is safe or not.
Indeed, in his response to the IAC report, Lin Homer, head of the Border and Immigration Agency, hinted as much when he said: “We expect those that a court says have no genuine need for asylum to return home voluntarily, saving taxpayers the expense of enforcing their return.”
It’s a policy that’s not only inhumane but also wrong-headed. How can people with no access to money for day-to-day essentials and no right to work be expected to fund their return journeys halfway across the world?
With the government’s deportion system in a mess, those who have fallen through cracks or find themselves in the no-mans land that follows rejection are condemned to a life of misery and humiliation.
Those who work in this sector are calling for a few simple changes which would bring some fairness back into the system. They want support to be offered to asylum seekers right up to appeal, and for those who are refused but cannot be returned home to be allowed to work.
Nigel Rose, manager of Refugee Action’s Manchester branch, says: “Far from encouraging refused asylum seekers to return home, destitution has the opposite effect. It means the government loses contact with asylum seekers, who enter a cycle of poverty, fear, hunger and mental and physical deterioration. Each day they are destitute, the chances of return become more remote.
“Instead, the government should maintain contact with refused asylum seekers and work with them to resolve their cases.”
Sadly there are few signs so far that the government will be taking such criticisms on board.