Failed asylum seekers are being forced to choose between destitution in the UK or persecution at home, an Oxfam report claimed yesterday.
Many who appeal over failed cases are reduced to living hand-to-mouth lives in social and legal limbo.
The majority fail to apply for support because they have little faith in the system.
The report paints a uniformly bleak picture of the grim daily life of failed asylum seekers in the UK.
It claims that some develop mental health problems as a result and others are pushed into the sex trade as a way to earn money.
Oxfam and the Centre for Migration Policy Research at Swansea University, South Wales, have jointly published the new report. Many failed asylum seekers initially lose cases because they have no access to legal advice or do not speak English, it states.
Nearly a third of refused asylum cases are overturned on appeal, highlighting the poor quality of the decision-making process.
Kate Wareing, Oxfam director of UK poverty, said: “These are people who have made heartbreaking decisions to leave their families and flee their homes.
“They end up living as ghosts on the streets of Britain because of government policy and decision-making that strips them of their rights and dignity.
“The current system is designed to make people feel as low as possible and sends out a message that those who are refused asylum are not even worthy of our compassion.
“It goes against any sense of our common decency.”
The research was conducted by a group of refugees and asylum seekers, many with personal experiences of destitution.
They spoke to 45 people over several months, all of whom were, or had been, asylum seekers.
Many would never have taken part if the research had involved contact with someone they did not know or trust.
They talked about their own experiences and those of a wide network of friends and contacts, giving a much larger glimpse of the overall picture.
Heaven Crawley, Professor of International Migration at Swansea University, said: “This research gives us a rare insight into what life is like for refused asylum seekers in the UK and shows that there is a deep-rooted lack of faith in the current system.
“Forcing people to live in destitution is not a humane solution, nor does it lead to them returning voluntarily to their country of origin.”
In the UK, asylum seekers normally receive government accommodation and cash support of £35.52 a week.
Those who have had a claim refused are moved to Section 4 Support in the form of an Azure payment card, worth £35.39 a week.
But this can only be used in a limited number of shops and is conditional on agreeing to return home as soon as the UK government considers it safe to do so.
Main points in the report:
Many are destitute and depend on the kindness of other asylum seekers to let them sleep on their floor or share a hot meal;
Most are reduced to wandering the streets for hours, in fear of being caught and deported, because they have nowhere to go;
They are highly vulnerable to crime and various forms of exploitation;
Many suffer from ill-health as a result of having no accommodation, a poor diet and lack of access to healthcare;
Some experience psychological and emotional repercussions of being destitute, when many are already dealing with traumatic pasts. In desperation, some have to resort to entering into abusive relationships or even taking up sex work to survive.
Oxfam is calling for:
Asylum seekers who have been refused to receive cash support until the point of return, so they are not left without support while appeals or claims are being processed and can buy what they need to survive, rather than an inflexible payment card;
Improvement in the quality of initial decisions in the asylum-determination process, so those entitled to protection will get the protection they need.