Asylum seekers and refugees in the UK

1. Asylum seekers and refugees in the UK The UK government accepts someone as a refugee if they have fled their own country because of a “well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion”. Geneva Convention on refugees. There were 33,000 asylum applications pending at the end of 2016, again including the dependents of applicants.

2. The government also allows people to stay in the country to keep them safe without granting them refugee status as defined by the Geneva Convention, Asylum. When we refer to “refugees” or “asylum grants” this includes Humanitarian Protection or Leave Outside The Rules for human rights reasons. Creative commons@ www.flickr.com

3. B is a newly arrived asylum seeker with a 3 year old child. She is still waiting for her asylum support to start. We had to send a few reminders to the Home office and still waiting to hear back. B is suffering from serious mental health issues. She was subject to honor based violence in her home country by her own family/relatives because she entered into a love marriage. Her local village council issued a death sentence for B and her husband. They tried to escape, but unfortunately her husband was found by the villagers and was shot dead. B managed to escape with her little one and after a few months, with the help of an NGO she arrived in this country and claimed asylum with the hope of starting a new life. She has just started the process and waiting for her financial support to start. She needs some financial support to buy food and some weather appropriate clothes for her 3 year old child and herself. Creative commons@ www.flickr.com

4. N is currently completely destitute and street homeless. N arrived in the UK roughly 4 weeks ago from Namibia. He claimed asylum and was immediately detained. Whilst in detention he was afraid that he had been jailed and withdrew his asylum claim (he had no legal advice at this point). He has been released from detention and is working with his lawyer to submit a Judicial Review. Due to these very unusual and unfortunate circumstances, N has no entitlement to asylum support or to any other public funds. Our organisation has supported him with a one-off emergency destitution grant of £72. This, of course, is only a short term assistance and we have explained to him that unfortunately we are unable to provide any further support. He has absolutely no money and has already commented that he has lost weight since arriving because he is unable to eat properly. Creative commons@ www.flickr.com

5. Reason for Applying -H is a newly arrived asylum seeker. She is waiting for her NASS support to start. She is a mother of an 8-year-old girl who is suffering from Learning Disability. H has suffered a lot of trauma and torture out of her husband's hands. H’s husband wanted to kill their daughter when he realised, she is suffering from Learning Disability. H’s own family and her in laws did not provide any support. Her life became very difficult, she arrived in this country to claim asylum and is waiting for the case process to start. She needs help to buy food, warm clothes for her daughter and a warm double duvet. Once H’s NASS support will start, she will be able to manage her expenses in a much better way but at this moment she doesn't have any financial support and would appreciate some help. Creative commons@ www.flickr.com

6. The Fund for Human Need (FHN) is a small Methodist-affiliated charity established to relieve poverty and hunger. Emergency payments are made, irrespective of faith, ethnic origin or social group, to individuals in the UK, most of whom are refugees, asylum seekers or homeless, and to those in other kinds of personal distress. In 2017/18 we had applications from 640 refugees/asylum seekers in desperate need from across the UK. FHN Where a little means a lot. Not just giving money, giving love, hope, trust, self esteem and confidence. www.fundforhumanneed.org.uk