Asylum seekers should have better access to public services and be entitled to work after six months, MPs have said in a cross-party report on the UK’s immigration system, The Guardian reports.
In their recommendations, MPs call on the government to allow asylum seekers to work for six months after arriving in the UK while they await the outcome of their claim.
Currently, most people awaiting a decision on their asylum claim are not authorised to work in the UK. There are limited exemptions after 12 months for those qualified to work in sectors where there are skills shortages, such as social care.
The report, which will be published on Tuesday, was produced jointly by the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Poverty and Migration following an enquiry involving 200 experts. It says taxpayers are bearing the costs of the current immigration and asylum system.
It concludes that current government policy is “designed” to push migrants and asylum seekers into poverty, but does not deter them from coming to the UK.
The authors call for immigration and citizenship fees to be reduced, especially for young people who are on the path to settlement and British citizenship. The report calls on ministers to improve migrants’ access to welfare and public services to avoid them working in unsafe and exploitative labour.
The report’s authors also warn that by creating long queues for asylum seekers and restricting their access to public services and welfare benefits, government policies are pushing migrants in the UK into poverty.
The report says that the 10-year period of eligibility for permanent settlement for migrants should be reduced to five years and that no one on the path to settlement should be subject to “no recourse to public funds” rules for more than five years. The report says:
“It is hard to avoid the conclusion that policy is sometimes designed to push people into poverty in the hope that it will deter others from moving to the UK, even though there is little evidence that this would indeed be a deterrent.”
The report concludes that current immigration policies are “inhumane and ineffective”, placing a burden on local authorities, public services and taxpayers, and pushing migrants into poverty
The authors call for a comprehensive strategy to integrate and support refugees and suggest that ministers consider providing free English language lessons to all UK residents, regardless of immigration status.
Ruth Lister, a Labour peer and co-author of the report, said its findings showed “that all too often government policy is creating hidden poverty and destitution for people in the immigration system”. She also added:
“By creating a hostile environment for many in vulnerable circumstances, it is not only pushing people into extreme poverty and destitution, but is leaving local communities – local government and civil society groups – to pick up the pieces.”
Olivia Blake, a Labour MP and co-chair of the migration APPG, said:
“It is widely acknowledged that the UK’s immigration system is broken, but our report shows that it appears to want to break the people.”
