Charities to test new policy of denying benefits to late applicants

Alan Travis, home affairs editor
Friday January 17, 2003
The Guardian
 http://society.guardian.co.uk/asylumseekers/story/0,7991,876596,00.html

A high court judge yesterday ordered urgent hearings into two human rights test cases challenging the legality of the government's new policy of denying welfare benefits to asylum seekers who do not claim refugee status as soon as they arrive in Britain.

Mr Justice Maurice Kay ordered the legal challenges to go ahead in the high court in London on January 31, as Shelter and the Refugee Council claimed that a severely traumatised torture victim had been sleeping rough in a Leeds car park as a result of the asylum rules that came into effect nine days ago.

Mr Justice Kay said that the courts had been taken by surprise by the swift reaction to the change, which has already sparked a mounting number of legal challenges.

"It is apparent from this group of cases and conversations with other judges who have received out-of-hours applications that this might be the beginnings of a flood," he said.

There is no right of appeal against a refusal of benefits, and the only remedy is to seek judicial review.

The judge said that a legal challenge to the asylum regime had been arranged for late February, but the courts should act more quickly.

The two cases to be heard at the end of this month involve M, a Rwandan woman, 43, who failed to apply for asylum immediately after flying into Britain, and J, an Iranian, 27, who arrived in the country hidden in the back of a lorry.

The high court decision came as Shelter highlighted the case of a Cameroonian aged 28, who appears to have serious mental health problems and slept rough in Leeds car park after he arrived in Britain on January 7.

"He speaks no English, is suicidal, refuses to eat, and makes himself sick," said Steve Ballinger of Shelter, which is demanding social services attempt to find the man emergency housing.

Margaret Lally, of the Refugee Council, said: "We are seeing clients who have been in the country for as little as 24 hours who are being turned down for support because it took them a day to claim for asylum. This is nothing short of ludicrous."

The rules were introduced as a result of last minute amendments to the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002.

They stipulate that only those who apply for asylum "as soon as reasonably practical" after they arrive in Britain will be eligible for accommodation and state support while their applications for refugee status are considered.

Exceptions are made for families with children under 18, and those with special needs.

In a novel legal attempt to pre-empt a high court ruling, the legislation also exempts those asylum seekers for whom a denial of benefits would amount to "cruel or inhumane" treatment under article three of the European convention on human rights.

The immigration minister, Beverley Hughes, told the Commons last month that about 700 asylum seekers a week would fall into the category of people who were no longer eligible for state support.

The Home Office defended the policy, saying if asylum seekers had been here for weeks, months or even, in some cases, years before claiming asylum, it cast doubt on the credibility of their claim.

The Refugee Legal Centre said there were many justifiable reasons why a person might not make a claim on arrival, and no evidence to suggest that claims of late applicants were weaker than those claims made on day of
arrival.

Thanks
Frank Corrigan

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