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Applying social work law to asylum and immigration
Applying social work law to asylum and immigration

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5 Working with asylum seekers and refugees

Activity 3 will allow you to consider in more detail the specific needs of asylum seekers and refugees in England, Wales and Scotland.

Activity 3 Working with asylum seekers and refugees

Timing: 30 minutes

Listen to the following clips from an interview with Wafa Shaheen, Head of Service at the Scottish Refugee Council (SRC). In the two audios she describes the work of her organisation and highlights the difficulties encountered by asylum seekers and refugees, including unaccompanied children and young people seeking asylum.

As you listen to the first audio where Wafa talks about the work of the SRC and the asylum process, make notes in answer to the question that follows.

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Transcript: Audio 1 The Scottish Refugee Council and the asylum process

Wafa Shaheen
The Scottish Refugee Council is a national human rights charity, organisation, that works with asylum seekers and refugees to try to help them understand and access their rights through provisional information and advice, and then we take these issues and try to influence policies and support Scottish politicians to speak on behalf of these issues. We assist people to raise their voice and talk about their issues because it’s more powerful when it comes from the real person. We do briefings all the time. We do conferences. We try to raise these issues locally and at a national level as well.
The whole migration debate does frustrate me personally because, as media, as politicians, we make it bigger than it is, and we focus on people’s vulnerability and people as a burden instead of… For example, in Scotland, we do need people, we need migrants, because you need workforce basically but you don’t see that argument. You see it in other European countries in terms of the rhetoric and the debate on migration. It’s not in the UK.
Fiona Cotterill
Can you give me an example of when somebody comes here, what kind of issues are they facing and what can you help them with?
Wafa Shaheen
People come for different reasons. Some people come just to find out information about available services, either social activities - they want to know where they can access language courses. Are the entitled to work and how can they find a job - or, they are having a specific legal issue that they want help with. So, we are registered with the Office of Immigration Commissioner Services, and our advisors have a level of expertise that they can actually either respond to these issues or refer to specialist immigration lawyer. There are people who come here and say ‘I want to claim asylum’ or ‘I can’t go back home’, so our role is to try to understand their circumstances to see if asylum is their only option, and if asylum is their only option, we try to assess them to access their asylum procedure in the UK. If you are in the country to register your asylum claim, the only place is Croydon in London. So, we have to help people to travel to Croydon. Once people then get their asylum registered with the Home Office, it’s up to the Home Office to send them to a city that has asylum accommodation in the UK. So, the people that we send to Croydon, they might come back, they might go to other city – wherever asylum accommodation is available. To get their accommodation and support from the Home Office, they have to have their asylum claim registered and ongoing, and they have to prove they are destitute – they don’t have other means to support themselves. Then, people will be dispersed by the Home Office to Glasgow – Glasgow is the only dispersal city within Scotland since 2000. Once they get their accommodation here, they get between £35-£36 a week. It’s per person, so if you’re single that’s all what you’re getting. If you are family, then it’s per each member of the family but that will be for your food, for your travel, for anything else that you need to buy.
Fiona Cotterill
So, are asylum seekers eligible for any other benefits other than what they’re given through the NASS system?
Wafa Shaheen
In terms of financial support, the asylum support is only benefit they are entitled to. The main thing that people don’t have is the right to work. They still have the right to education, maybe not to full-time further education. In Scotland, asylum seekers have the right to access English Language provision. They still have the right to health services. If they meet the threshold for vulnerability, not caused by destitution, then they have right to social care as well. Children have the same rights as everybody else in Scotland, so preschool, school, all the grants that other kids get, and the other big difference with England is legal aid, so asylum seekers can access legal aid throughout the whole process.
Fiona Cotterill
Can you tell me a little bit about what the National Asylum Support Service actually involves?
Wafa Shaheen
The National Asylum Support Service is a welfare system for asylum seekers who arrive to the country, have registered their claim, so there is ongoing, live asylum claim, and people are destitute.
The issue is not just about asylum seekers who have access to asylum support, the Home Office asylum support, but it’s also for those who access the asylum system with no rights. So, they will get… their asylum claim will be refused and they will have to stop getting support basically from the Home Office, and they are now part of the group that’s called No Recourse Public Fund. The Scottish Local Authorities are in the process of trying to write guidance on the No Recourse Public Fund because it extends beyond asylum seekers. For those who are in receipt of asylum support, basically they are in poverty. It gets worse if you have children because if your children are in school then they could be excluded from some activities because they have to have money to pay it. It’s a huge issue. There are a few projects and charities that will assist. There are some private investors that are willing to pay towards education. We get small amounts of money for children activities. If you are single, and not vulnerable, then you’re doomed.
Those single people who are destitute because their asylum has been refused, there is the risk of them ending up in the streets. There are limited options in terms of accommodation. There are night shelters but very, very limited, and there are a few people who go into and out of destitution, so if we can help them to explore some options, we have a project called DASS, which is Destitute Asylum Seekers Service. The target group are those who exit the asylum process with negative decisions to sit down with them and see what other options, legal avenues, they can go through, and in the last year we assisted 33% of those people to get back into the asylum system, but the majority will disappear because there is nowhere for people to go.
Fiona Cotterill
Other than the financial pressures, what other difficulties do asylum seekers face?
Wafa Shaheen
There is a negative perception by people. There is the lack of language skills, sometimes there are the lack of social networks for people. So, they have no-one to rely on. However, asylum seekers, because they all go through the same circumstances, they form sometimes friendships, and there are lots of people who sofa-surf, so they sleep on other people’s floors, and it’s not just about isolation but it’s the impact of isolation on people, it’s the impact of their mental wellbeing. You see people and you see young people who spend most of their lives here with no hope.
If we’re talking about children within families, then there is emotional thing that they actually see their parents go through because the asylum process is not an easy process but, because of the limited resources that people have as well, they can’t actually engage in lots of activities, so they can’t go to the cinema for example because it would cost a lot of money, but even in school, and if they are new in the city and their language is not great, other children tend to pick the language and everything quite quickly, they still feel they’re different from their peers.
End transcript: Audio 1 The Scottish Refugee Council and the asylum process
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Audio 1 The Scottish Refugee Council and the asylum process
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1. What are the main difficulties that asylum seekers and refugees face on entering the UK and the barriers to them accessing services?

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In the second audio, Wafa discusses the needs of asylum seekers, including families, unaccompanied children and young people, and vulnerable adults. Make notes in answer to the question that follows.

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Transcript: Audio 2 Social work with asylum seekers including unaccompanied children and young people

Wafa Shaheen
Most local authorities don’t want to see homeless people, and we’ve been working very actively with Glasgow City Council who are willing to assist if they get the right legal advice to say that they are not acting against the law. There is that huge confusion about ‘what does constitute a public fund? What doesn’t constitute a public fund?’ Politically, there is a willingness to help. For me, and this is clear from the local authorities, if somebody is vulnerable, then they do have duty to support them, and they do in most cases with a struggle sometimes in some cases. For women with children, they take it for granted that it’s their duty to support families with children. The issue that we can assist with is we get the attention of the local authority and we get them aware of these cases. Lots of people are aware now that the local authorities might have to share information with the Home Office, so that stops people from approaching local authorities. So, they tend to go to third sector, so charity organisation like ourselves where they can trust, and then we can actually advocate on other people’s behalf.
Fiona Cotterill
You mentioned children. What particular pressures do children face when they come to Scotland?
Wafa Shaheen
If children arrive without their family, then the added pressure of they’re alone here in a foreign country. In Scotland, we have the guardianship project that we run in partnership with Aberlour so we manage the project but Aberlour which is a national children’s charity, they deliver the service, so each unaccompanied asylum child that comes to Scotland will have the right to have a guardian. This is actually funded by the Scottish Government, and the role of the guardian is to work with a child, not just to advise them and support them with their asylum process, but with all aspects of their lives, so the relationship with the social worker, the relationship with the education provider, and they run lots of social activities for children. So, the guardian works like a bridge between the child and all the services around them because there are so many things. There is the lawyer, there is the social worker, there is an immigration officer – it is a lot for children.
The issue with unaccompanied children – there are young children, so the whole concept of asylum is… mind you, the concept of asylum is not an easy concept for anybody, so imagine if you are a child, and if your child is 12, how do you explain to children this is what it means, and some children, if they are as young as 12 and 13, they will get granted discretional leave until they are 17 and a half and, sometimes, they don’t understand why they are not getting the right to stay. The other issue for unaccompanied asylum seekers is the need to prove their age and how do they get their age assessed, so some social workers will actually look at the child and say ‘I don’t believe you’re under 18’ and how do you accurately tell somebody’s age by their look or by any other measures? There are boys who have beards. Some children will look older than their age, and it’s really hard actually to prove their age, and there are cases where age was disputed, so we have both the guardian and the legal practitioner trying to advocate on their behalf with the social worker but we had a few cases where social workers were adamant that they are over 18 and we had to support people to travel to Croydon but it wasn’t comfortable for us to send these children who we are not sure if they are older than 18, and even if they are 18, putting people on bus overnight to Croydon is… it’s a big thing.
Fiona Cotterill
We’ve just mentioned social workers. In what circumstances do social workers become involved with asylum seekers?
Wafa Shaheen
For adults, in the asylum process, the only time that social workers get involved is when we make a referral, so there has to be a case – either adult protection or for vulnerability reasons basically. So, for example, we had somebody with severe health issues who was in hospital for a long time and, before he got discharged from hospital, he was destitute. We actually worked with Glasgow City Council and advocated on his behalf, and they accepted the responsibility, and they are supporting him through social work with financial assistance and accommodation. The other stuff that he needs, so access to legal provision, we are still working with him to see what options are available for him but, even if there is no option, the social work department have accepted to support him.
Fiona Cotterill
What advice would you give to individual social workers about dealing with asylum issues and individuals who maybe are seeking asylum or who’ve fallen out of that asylum system?
Wafa Shaheen
The advice I give to everybody, not just to social workers, when you deal with asylum seekers and refugees, remove the tag. Remove the tag of ‘asylum seeker’ and don’t look at the colour of the person. Look at their circumstances because that’s the whole purpose and the rationale behind all social work practices is the person that you deal with – what is their circumstances? And, to be fair to lots of social workers that we come across, they do understand this and want to treat people as people but the system and the structures they work in are very restrictive, there is a lot of confusion, and social workers on the ground need a lot of support from their managers. Immigration and legal issues are very complex. You have to be qualified to provide immigration advice, so if you are a social worker, it’s not your role to provide legal advice, plus it’s breaking the law if you give immigration advice or if you’re not a qualified immigration advisor.
Social worker can go to Scottish Refugee Council, or immigration lawyers. Scottish Refugee Council advisors are all registered with the Office of Immigration Service Commissioner, so they are experts in their field.
End transcript: Audio 2 Social work with asylum seekers including unaccompanied children and young people
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Audio 2 Social work with asylum seekers including unaccompanied children and young people
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2. What are some of the issues for unaccompanied children and young people seeking asylum?

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Discussion

Wafa Shaheen dispels many of the myths that affect some public perceptions of asylum seekers and refugees and outlines the problems that they face both on arriving in the UK, and applying for asylum and in accessing services. These include the immediate practical necessities for housing, clothing and food; the personal difficulties that stem from the traumatic experiences that have led to them seeking asylum in the first place, and the legal and social barriers that exist to securing shelter or safety. In 2017, the asylum allowance for an individual for everything excluding housing was £36.95 (to cover food, clothing, travel to appointments, phone and other necessities).

She mentions some of the legal processes that apply to asylum seekers and emphasises the importance for people working with asylum seekers to have a full appreciation of their situation and particular needs, including their vulnerability and the need for social support. Unaccompanied children, and those under the age of 18, seeking asylum are entitled to social work support and to be accommodated as ‘looked after’ children by the local authority. They are also able to access other entitlements such as education.

Under current legal arrangements those adults seeking asylum in most cases are not allowed to work, they do not have access to mainstream benefits or housing, and must depend on support from the Home Office asylum-support system for meeting their basic needs; where this is lacking, they are reliant on the availability of charitable help. Asylum seekers in receipt of support are required to sign an Asylum Support Agreement which sets out the conditions they must meet. These conditions include living at an officially approved address, obeying requirements about reporting weekly at a place designated by the Home Office in order to receive support. There is a high level of destitution among those from whom financial and housing support has been withdrawn; this has become part of government policy to encourage the return to their country of origin of those whose application for asylum has been refused. There is also a high level of demand for social work services in the area of community care, unaccompanied children and young persons seeking asylum and support for children and families.

You may have a range of ideas about ways in which social workers and other people can work with asylum seekers and refugees (including unaccompanied children and young persons seeking asylum) in empowering and anti-oppressive ways. Social work, as it relates to asylum seekers and refugees, should challenge the labels that are often applied to these potential service users and avoid generalised assumptions about their experiences and needs. It is important to ‘see the individual’, to be sensitive to the experiences that asylum seekers may suffer, and to consider the implications of this in relation to their effective engagement with social work services. Practitioners must also remember, as Wafa outlines, that this group are particularly vulnerable because they often lack access to other support networks, such as extended family and friends, that many of us take for granted.

Box 2 Barriers to accessing social work services

Listed below are some of the potential barriers to accessing social work support; you may have thought of others.

  • lack of familiarity with the availability of social work services and the concept of social work
  • language difficulties and inadequate interpreting and translation services, for example in the area of mental health
  • suspicion and distrust of professionals due to previous encounters with public authorities
  • specific needs may be hidden or unidentified due to cultural difference – for example, domestic violence, child carers and mental health problems, physical disabilities
  • difficulties in filling out forms and coping with bureaucracy
  • lack of continuity of care, for example as people move between accommodation or are ‘dispersed’
  • poverty and its impact on the individual being able to afford travel to access services, go to meetings and hearings etc.
  • the use of detention for people with insecure immigration status, which limits their access to social work support.