By Sanjay Suri
LONDON, Oct 15 2003 (IPS)

Asylum seekers who came to Britain in search of refuge could face cold and hunger on the streets of London this winter, activists say.

The long and hot summer killed about 2,000 more people than normal for that time of the year, a government study shows. Now government policies, rather than the cold, could bring on a new crisis this winter.

"We are going to see a humanitarian disaster this winter," Deborah Garvey from the charity Shelter told IPS. "It is unlikely that a homeless refugee will not die of cold and hunger."

The risk results from a series of stringent measures put in place to discourage immigration into Britain; and asylum seekers are being deterred as unwanted migrants.

New rules put in place by the Home Office require an asylum-seeker who comes in as illegal immigrant to apply for asylum at the first available opportunity. The majority of asylum-seekers fail to meet this requirement, and their claims are liable to be dismissed for this reason alone.

"Many asylum seekers simply do not know of this requirement," says Tony Fuller from Migrant Helpline, an agency which is funded by the government but works independently.

Asylum seekers who finally know what to do "have to line up for days at the Home Office because applications are received only for half a day rather than all day as earlier," Fuller told IPS. "Many asylum seekers have to spend days queuing up, and this itself undermines their case."

Most asylum-seekers are housed in emergency detention centres. There are at present an estimated 2,500 asylum-seekers housed in detention centres. More are being taken to these centres.

"The applications of about 90 percent of them are likely to be rejected," Fuller says. After that, most will have literally nowhere to go. They are not allowed to work, and they are offered no state support either.

The only shelter available to asylum-seekers is one provided by the Mother Teresa Foundation in London where one or two vacancies come up a day, and one in Bristol, about 100 miles from London, which admits the first 15 who queue up every day, Garvey says.

Government orders can be challenged in court, "but there are only a limited number of solicitors who can take on judicial review proceedings," Garvey says.

Already, hundreds of asylum-seekers who have been expelled from detention centres – but not deported – have begun to sleep rough and scrounge for food.

An office of the Refugee Council in Brixton in south London, which provides free food packages to asylum-seekers, has seen near stampedes for food in recent days. The approaching winter means they will not be able to sleep rough much longer.

"This winter thousands will be released on the street," says Fuller. "What choice do they have? It is a choice between death and criminality. This is atrocity by stealth."

The government policies that have led to this situation are set to rebound on the government, he says. "A lot of people now don’t bother to queue because they know their applications will be turned down," he says.

"They figure they are better off just disappearing into the system."

This practice would in fact encourage illegal immigrants who are not genuine asylum-seekers, says Fuller. "These measures will encourage economic migrants who have resources and friends," he says. "Genuine asylum-seekers are friendless people with no one to turn to."

The Home Office has announced a new policy under which the government will work with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees to accept asylum-seekers.

Home Secretary David Blunkett announced a target of 500 refugees to be accepted into Britain through this means every year. But it is not clear whether this is intended to substitute the practice where asylum-seekers make claims upon entry.

"It is not okay to say that we will take only so many, and it is all right for the rest to be tortured," Fuller says. The present policies mark "a sad day for the UK," he says. "This is a de facto abandonment of Britain’s commitment to the Geneva Conventions."

Under new laws, asylum-seekers have been systematically excluded from systems for the homeless, says Garvey. "The Act is often being applied in a draconian and brutal manner."

An amended Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act that came into force November last year introduced stringent new conditions, and the Home Office has since then issued further orders to restrict asylum-seekers.

The order requiring declaration of intent to seek asylum was passed in January this year.

Tighter controls and difficult conditions have seen a sharp decline in the number of asylum seekers in Britain. A total of 10,585 people applied for asylum in Britain in the second quarter of this year, which is less than a third of the applicants in the first quarter, and about half the number that applied in the last quarter of last year.

In May the number of applicants fell to 3,280, the lowest level for any month in the past five years.

There was an appreciable decline in the number of applicants from Iraq and Afghanistan. Most asylum-seekers this year have come from Somalia, Zimbabwe and China.

Excerpt: