We are deeply alarmed by the UK Government’s proposed reforms to asylum support, set out in its consultation on implementing provisions of the Immigration Act 2016. These proposals would significantly restructure and reduce access to support for people who have been refused asylum, including removing asylum support from families 90 days after refusal. They would put children at risk of destitution, and significantly increase destitution among people refused asylum or without an immigration status, including stateless individuals and families who may not have a had a chance to regularise their stay.
If approved, the impact on stateless people and those at risk of statelessness would be severe, compounding the uncertainty and instability they already endure and the structural barriers they face in resolving their status. By prolonging their exclusion from stable immigration status, the changes would obstruct access to existing pathways to settlement and citizenship, undermining broader efforts to reduce statelessness.
JRS UK together with ENS, Asylum Aid, Salam, NASI and University of Liverpool Law Clinic recommends that the UK Government:
- Abandons the current proposals to reform the asylum support regime;
- Ensure that everyone can access the support they need to live safely and in dignity,
and that access to asylum support is based on need and responsive to individual
circumstances - Maintain effective procedural safeguards, including access to independent appeal
mechanisms
