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After months of warnings from campaigners, the government announced a last-minute reprieve for more than 2,500 asylum seekers who were at risk of being made homeless over the bank holiday weekend.

The government had previously announced that National Asylum Support Service or local authority support would be denied to asylum seekers from the 10 EU accession countries from 1 May when their nations joined the EU. The group can still pursue their asylum claims but the government assumption is that their countries are now safe.

Since unemployed nationals from the 10 accession countries are not entitled to any benefits or social housing, campaigners were concerned that thousands of asylum seekers and their families could become destitute.

Richard Lumley, an adviser at the Refugee Council, said that the government's plans were "in danger" of breaching the European Convention on Human Rights in two areas: article 8, which states that everyone has a right to respect for his or her private and family life; and article 3, the right not to be subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment.

Late last week the government sent a letter to local authorities (dated 29 April), stating that Nass would consider applications for continued support after 1 May from asylum seekers who believed their human rights were going to be breached.

In the same week, Mr Justice Collins granted interim relief in three cases brought against Nass and a local authority in the High Court. He did not, however, go as far as to grant interim relief to all affected asylum seekers.

The letter says that the Home Office has "made arrangements for Nass to receive any late representations over the coming days including the bank holiday weekend". It adds that "Nass would still - at this late stage - welcome representations on such matters, before they [the asylum seeker] or their advisers make application for judicial review".

It also asks councils to "urgently ensure" that their asylum support teams decide whether asylum seekers who believe their human rights would be breached have a case.

It says that if the team are unable to decide then Nass will offer local authorities reimbursement of the costs of continuing support and accommodation for up to 14 days while they carry out an assessment.

Last week, a Home Office spokesperson said that Nass and local authorities would provide support to people in "exceptional cases" to prevent human rights legislation being breached. He added that the support will be provided until an individual's asylum claim is decided.

Also last week, Nass instructed all accommodation providers not to evict any of the Nass supported asylum seekers, about 1,131, before their cases had been reviewed.

This means that they will not lose the accommodation and benefits immediately. No one was evicted over the weekend, and it is unknown whether any of the 1,483 people supported by councils have been made homeless.

A Nass spokesperson says:"Nass has asked accommodation providers to provide an update of accession nationals still in Nass accommodation. They will then be asked why they are unable to take up one of the options (see box). If they are unable to provide a valid reason the landlord will be instructed to issue a notice to quit."

The issue could be decided by a test case of a Slovakian man who believes the new rules break asylum seekers' human rights. This week, the High Court granted the man - who has lived in the UK for six years - leave to seek a judicial review over the right for a three-month transition period.

The man has lived in the UK for six years. He has a wife and three children. Lawyers claim the family only received three and a half weeks notice that they would lose state support and accommodation.

They allege the man, who is a trained bricklayer, did not have time to register to work by 1 May. They will also claim that enforcing the new rules would breach the human rights of asylum seekers as they could make them destitute.

The Refugee Council says that 2,571 asylum seekers, mostly Roma, and their families are at risk of being made homeless. It has called for transitional arrangements to be put in place for three months giving people more time to find accommodation and employment.


Maeve Sherlock, chief executive of the organisation, asks: "Would it really hurt to let these families stay in their homes for a few more weeks while the adults find a job?"

But a Home Office spokesperson rejects the calls and says letters were sent out to all the asylum seekers by 16 April informing them that support would be withdrawn. She adds that Nass outreach teams followed up the letters with home visits.

Peter Gilroy, director of Kent social services and asylum spokesperson for the Association of Directors of Social Services, has more than 200 asylum seekers in the county who could become homeless. He also calls for transitional arrangements.

He says the letters were not sent early enough and criticises the fact that they are in English. "Once again local government is being asked to pick up the pieces of a policy that could have been better managed."

Gilroy says that councils had a legal duty to look after the children of destitute asylum seekers under the Children Act 1989 and that he would be extending this support to the whole family. "We are not going to separate parents from their children," he says.

Liverpool Council, which has 220 to 240 asylum seekers who may become destitute, says it is prepared to take children into care and not support their parents because Home Office guidelines instructs councils not to support them.

A spokesperson says that the council will have to use its own funds to pay for looking after any children. "We have a duty to look after the children and it will come out of our budget. It [looking after children] wasn't referred to in guidance the Home Office gave us," she adds.

A Home Office spokesperson says that councils had the power to provide temporary accommodation to asylum seekers who were returning home and to pay for their journey and would be reimbursed by the government.

If the Slovakian man's judicial review is successful it could force the government to do a U-turn, which will be particularly damaging coming just weeks after ministers backtracked over plans for a single-tier of appeal for asylum seekers and the subsequent resignation of the immigration minister Beverley Hughes.

The legal system will have to decide whether asylum seekers' rights have been breached and the three-month transition period introduced.

Home Office options

• People from eight of the countries will have to gain employment and register as workers under the Home Office's workers registration scheme in order to be eligible for certain Department for Work and Pensions benefits and social housing.
• Nationals from Malta and Cyprus will not be required to register but will still have to be employed in order to qualify.
• People from all 10 states can stay in the UK and look for work but be self supporting.
• The Home Office will pay for them to leave the UK and will pay for them to be supported until they travel. However, the government is not able to force them to go home.

The 10 European accession countries

• Malta
• Cyprus
• Latvia
• Slovakia
• Czech Republic
• Lithuania
• Slovenia
• Estonia
• Hungary
• Poland

Migration to UK

Research commissioned by the Home Office, which reviews several studies on the flow of migrants from the new accession countries, estimates that the likely flow to the UK will be between 5,000 and 13,000 per year between 2004-10.