MPs condemn asylum system as 'inhumane'

Thousands of people fleeing persecution in their own countries end up victims of the UK's "degrading and inhumane" asylum system, says a committee of MPs.

In assessing the Government's 10-year asylum policy, the Joint Committee on Human Rights concludes that no "human being should have to suffer such appalling treatment".

The MPs also have concerns about the greater use of detention against vulnerable people such as children, pregnant women and those with serious health problems.

Evidence before the committee included examples of a dying refugee being deported to a country where he had no palliative care and pregnant women being denied access to proper care in Britain.

The asylum system, says the report, is "overly complex, poorly administered, and offers inadequate information and advice about the support to which people are entitled, in some cases denying any support whatsoever to people who are desperate and destitute". The report concludes that the human rights of some of the most vulnerable members of society have been breached.

The committee chairman, Andrew Dismore MP, said: "Innocent children should never be detained - alternatives must be developed.The system of asylum- seeker support is a confusing mess, and the policy of enforced destitution must cease."

Robina Qureshi, the director of Positive Action in Housing, which supports asylum-seekers in Glasgow, said that the report confirmed what she saw on the streets every day.

She said: "The treatment these people receive amounts to them being tortured in a country which they have come to because they are fleeing persecution from their own."

She added: "The system works on the basis that all applications are bogus and as a result is ruthless in its treatment of the most vulnerable people in society and inevitably leads to the decline in their physical and mental health.

"In the end, the weak ones are sent home and the strong simply join the underclass of Britain's underclass, where they have to work in the underground economy. Many of these people end up sleeping in phoneboxes, night buses and car parks."

Rui Juan, refugee, 25: 'I'm scared and homesick'

Pregnant and fleeing persecution in China, Rui Juan has applied to the Home Office for "hard case" support. For the last year she has been without any financial support or assistance because her asylum application was refused. If she doesn't get help she will be forced to live in the streets. For the past two weeks she has been helped by volunteers from the Positive Action in Housing charity, who have been able find her accommodation, but only in the short-term. She is now more than six months pregnant. Her situation is desperate and she needs a spare room or "bed space" for a few days until her new application is processed.

Ms Rui said through an interpreter: "I am very scared and very homesick. If Positive Action in Housing had not been here to help I would have to live in the street. I don't know how else to live here or how to deal with this problem."

She said: "I would like help to find a flat somewhere, I don't care where. I don't have any money to live. If I could work I would live and pay rent but if I have no work or no food I will be very sad."