Home Office facing legal challenge over failure to support new asylum seekers during pandemic

Exclusive: Lawyer argues ministers ‘failing to operate lawful policy’ for asylum seekers after Afghan family told they cannot get support unless they are street homeless and attend Home Office in person

Lawyers say the department is now refusing to accept submissions from people do travel to the asylum unit in Croydon unless they are street homeless, leaving many with no way at all of accessing support (AFP)

The Home Office is facing a legal challenge over its failure to grant new asylum seekers financial support during the coronavirus pandemic, which lawyers say is forcing vulnerable families into destitution.

The Independent revealed last week that hundreds of asylum seekers were being forced to choose between travelling to London to submit their claims or surviving without the support they are entitled to due to a lack of any alternative submission process during the lockdown.

Lawyers said the department was now refusing to accept submissions from people who travel to the asylum screening unit in Croydon unless they are homeless, leaving many with no way at all of accessing support.

One Afghan man was told by the Home Office that he could not arrange a screening interview to apply for asylum for his family of seven until after the lockdown has been lifted. He was offered no support or accommodation in the meantime.

The family is currently being provided shelter by an acquaintance, but they have been informed they must vacate the premises by 17 May. The father is running out of money and has limited savings which he said would will last only until Monday.

Asylum seekers in the UK are eligible to receive £37.75 per week from the Home Office and can be provided with basic accommodation if they have nowhere else to live, but they must submit their claim for this support to be activated.

The Home Office has said people wishing to claim asylum who have nowhere to live and are at immediate risk of destitution during the pandemic can access asylum support by presenting at the Croydon unit – but the Afghan man said that when he phoned the department to check this, he was told he must be street homeless in order to do so.

His lawyer, Raman Kumar of Duncan Lewis Solicitors, is now planning to challenge the actions of the Home Office by issuing judicial review proceedings, saying the department had “failed to operate lawful policies during this time of public health emergency”.

Mr Kumar issued the Home Office with a letter before claim on 17 April and received a reply three days later stating that because he had not provided them with a Home Office reference number for the client, the department was unable to locate his file and that therefore no action would be taken and the letter was to be archived.

The lawyer said this had left the family in a “paradoxical situation” in which they could not register an asylum claim, but also could not challenge the Home Office’s “failure” to record their claim as it refuses to recognise their standing to do so because their claim has not been registered.

Mr Kumar sent another letter before claim on 20 April regarding procedural unfairness on this issue, and did not receive a response.

The Afghan man, who arrived in the UK at the end of 2019, told The Independent: “My family and I have fled persecution and now will be homeless in a couple of weeks. I am constantly scared with what will happen to my family and I should we not receive any support from the government and being homeless is never something I thought would happen to me especially in the UK.”

It comes after campaigners called on the Home Office to urgently establish a system for carrying out screening interviews remotely or at a regional level, so people are not forced to choose between travelling to London during the lockdown or surviving without financial support or access to the NHS and other public services.

The Home Office told The Independent it had at no stage refused to register an asylum claim from someone who was vulnerable or at immediate risk of destitution and that it continued to register asylum claims through processes that are aligned and compliant with the government’s guidance on social distancing and only essential travel.

Mr Kumar said of his client’s case: “They are unable to access accommodation, asylum support or medical treatment as they cannot show they have made an asylum claim. They are about to become destitute. When we challenged this, the Home Office refused to consider our letter regarding our client because they could not find our client’s claim on their system.

“Had the Home Office exercised a common sense approach to the matter, they would have recognised that the purpose of our letter was to challenge their failure to register our client and his family as asylum seekers. Hence, the lack of a reference number.”

He continued: “This is clearly a result of a wider problem whereby the Home Office are failing to register new asylum claims in the UK during this pandemic, unless the asylum seekers are already street homeless and attend the Home Office in person.

“This would go against social distancing requirements and would be a risky situation for a family with children. This means most recent asylum seekers are unable to gain access to any asylum or destitution support.”

A Home Office spokesperson said they did not comment on individual cases, but added: “This is inaccurate because at no stage have we refused to register an asylum claim from someone who is vulnerable or at immediate risk of destitution. We have altered processes so that we register claims in a way that meets social distancing guidance.”