Destitute and in Danger: people made homeless by the asylum system (2024)
Destitute and in Danger, JRS UK’s new report, examines the experiences of homelessness among people refused asylum in London in the context of the cost-of-living crisis and following the COVID-19 pandemic.
After Brook House: continued abuses in immigration detention (2024)
JRS UK’s research – conducted with people with more recent experience of detention at different detention centres – finds clear, and deeply disturbing, parallels between practices and culture revealed by the 2017 Brook House Inquiry and recent and ongoing practices and culture across UK immigration detention.
Napier Barracks: the inhumane reality (2023)
JRS UK ran an outreach service to Napier for two years from October 2020. What we saw on the ground was deeply troubling: the site was bleak and rundown, the setting was securitised, the accommodation was crowded. This all took a serious toll on mental health. The report draws from the accounts of 17 forcibly displaced people supported by JRS UK held in Napier Barracks between July and November 2022.
Being Human in the Asylum System (2021)
The report seeks to envisage a just and person-centred asylum system by bringing refugee experience and policy analysis into conversation with Catholic Social Teaching, against the backdrop of new, deeply troubling government proposals for an overhaul of the asylum system.
For our welfare and not for our harm (2021)
This faith-based report, written by leading Catholic theologian Dr Anna Rowlands in collaboration with JRS, analyses barriers to justice and dignity faced by destitute people seeking asylum and people who’ve experienced detention from their own perspectives and approaches them as “dignified human agents who are able to shape their own futures.” The report focuses on the skills that many wish to pursue in order to work – not only to survive materially, but also as a way of contributing to society and maintaining a sense of purpose.
Detained and Dehumanised (2021)
This report draws from the accounts of 27 forcibly displaced people supported by JRS UK, with direct experience of detention spanning the last 20 years. It finds that the Home Office policy of immigration detention fosters a culture of death, self-harm and ongoing trauma leaving those who are detained, or threatened by the prospect of detention, dehumanised.
Out in the Cold (2018)
Research undertaken by JRS UK uncovers a widespread pattern of sporadic street homelessness affecting men and women of different ages and backgrounds, who had fled to the UK for safety and sought asylum, but struggled to gain recognition of their status as a refugee.
Briefings
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Survivors of Trafficking in Detention
Updated 2019
Victims of human trafficking are held in immigration detention. This represents an egregious failure of support to them. The Home Office is key in identifying and supporting victims who are detained; it is responsible for determining whether non-EEA nationals referred to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) are victims. There are good reasons for thinking that the Home Office’s interest in immigration control undermines the system for identifying and supporting victims, resulting in their continued detention.
NHS Charging
Updated September 2024
In England[1], people deemed non-resident have to pay for NHS hospital care and some community health services. In practice, this primarily applies to people refused asylum and others without immigration documents. For those subject to NHS Charging, care deemed ‘non-urgent’ must be paid for upfront, whilst care deemed ‘urgent’ will be retrospectively billed. Furthermore, data-sharing between NHS healthcare providers and the Home Office means that people with insecure immigration status are at risk of negative immigration consequences from accessing NHS care. In addition, on the ground there is much confusion, inconsistency, and error in the application of the Regulations. The NHS Charging Regime is a major barrier to healthcare for vulnerable migrants.
Previous versions
[1] These rules as discussed here are specific to England and do not operate as described in the rest of the UK. Among other things, in other parts of the UK, people refused asylum remain entitled to free NHS care.
