New rules on asylum deny toys to children

Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, has outraged refugee support groups by ordering that toys should not be provided for the children of asylum-seekers. The Home Office has also told supermarkets not to give asylum seekers their change when they buy food using vouchers issued by the Government.

The strict measures are part of a new system for dispersing thousands of asylum-seekers from London and the South-east to other parts of Britain, which begins next weekend.

In the Home Office rules laid down for the new system, Mr Straw has decreed that toys are not an "essential living" item and that no provision should be made for them.

But the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, which works with traumatised child refugees, said that toys and reading materials were a vital learning resource and that children were being unfairly punished.

Alison Harvey, the Foundation's advocacy officer, said: "These children have suffered so many fragmentations and dislocations in their lives including exile and bereavement. More than any other children, they need play to help them develop and grow."

The Home Office's National Asylum Support Service (NASS), which is supervising the dispersal programme, has decided that toys should be classed alongside "recreational items" and "entertainment expenses" as not being an essential living need.

This means that no provision is made for them within the allowances on which asylum- seekers have to live. Children under the age of 16 will receive £26.60 a week, while lone parents receive £36.54. Accommodation costs are also covered.

Ms Harvey said: "There is nothing to be gained from deterring children of asylum- seekers. None of the children that we see came to the UK of their own will. They were brought or sent here."

Also under the rules, asylum-seeker children of school age will be required to attend school, although problems are being experienced in some areas with finding places for them. Ms Harvey said: "The idea that they will go to school and then come home and stare at blank walls is awful."

Under the new scheme, asylum-seekers will be paid in vouchers that can be exchanged at designated shops.

Sodexho Pass, the French company contracted to run the voucher scheme, has written to supermarkets asking them not to "miss this revenue-making opportunity". In a brochure, the company advises: "Change should not be given, for example if goods to the value of £4.50 are purchased with a £5 voucher. The 50p change should not be handed back, but you as a Trading Partner will receive the full £5 value for the voucher." The Home Office is anxious that asylum-seekers get access to no more than £10 a week in cash.

Alisdair Mackenzie, who works for Asylum Aid, said: "I think it's extremely regrettable that supermarkets are being encouraged to rip people off."

The Government announced yesterday that the backlog of asylum cases had fallen for the first time in two years to 103,095 because a record 7,840 initial decisions had been processed last month.