Although the government’s policy prevents asylum seekers from working while their asylum claims are being processed, there is increasing support for the rules to be changed, writes Clare Jerrom.

An exclusive poll carried out for Community Care found that 78 per cent of the public thought that those seeking refuge in the UK should be allowed to work while their applications are being considered.

Four out of five of the 1000 people surveyed are supportive of allowing asylum seekers to get a job, particularly in areas where there are skills shortages.

Although it is unclear at this stage what proportion of asylum seekers would have the appropriate skills to fill these shortages, Refugee Action’s chief executive Sandy Buchan said: “Many are qualified professionals yet they are banned from working.”

Bharti Patel, the Refugee Council’s head of policy, added: “Every opinion poll on this subject draws the same conclusion: that the vast majority of the public believe asylum seekers should work, and it is about time the government started listening.”

The government used to allow asylum seekers to work if they had not had an initial decision about their asylum claim within six months. However the Home Office ended this practice in July 2002.

It claimed that the concession had only been introduced in 1986 because lengthy delays were widespread. Because the vast majority of asylum seekers were now receiving an initial decision within six months’ it had now become irrelevant.

“The vast majority – around 80 per cent –of asylum seekers receive a decision within six months, and we are working to improve that further,” said Beverley Hughes, Home Office minister last July. “An increasingly small number of people, therefore, are entitled to apply for the concession and I have decided to abolish it.”

More than a year on and the Home Office stands by this rationale. A spokesperson said this week: “The reason we don’t think asylum seekers need to work is because asylum applications are dealt with much more quickly now.”

However the latest available asylum statistics, from the second quarter of 2003, show that 22,900 asylum seekers waited for more than six months for an initial decision at the end of June, although a Home Office spokesperson insisted this figure “was the lowest it has been in a decade”.

Unsurprisingly, not all parties are in agreement on the right to work. The previous rule allowing asylum seekers to work if their initial decision was delayed for more than six months was introduced under a Tory government, although a Conservative party spokesperson acknowledged that there were far fewer asylum seekers coming to the UK when they were in power.

The spokesperson said that the government has banned asylum seekers from working because they were trying to bring “order” to the asylum system and this would act as a “deterring factor”.

However, denying asylum seekers the right to work legally could force them into illegal work in the black market, the spokesperson warned. Once underground, these asylum seekers become difficult to trace and the system becomes “shambolic”, he added.

This also causes problems for employers. A spokesperson for the Confederation of British Industry said: “Employers want a situation where they are less likely to run the risk of taking on illegal workers.”

Allowing asylum seekers whose claims are being processed to work would be one way of achieving this, as would processing claims more quickly, he added.

The Conservative party spokesperson said the main problem was the chaos within the asylum system and the high numbers of people claiming asylum. If the system was more orderly “then there wouldn’t need for these strict rules on employment and benefits”, he said.

“If the government could get the asylum system into order, there is no reason why we could not go back to the previous rules,” he added.

The Liberal Democrat party opposed the government’s move last July to prevent asylum seekers working.

The party’s home affairs spokesperson, Simon Hughes, said: “The government’s decision to abolish the employment concession for asylum seekers may make the system faster. But denying people the right to work will not make it fairer.”

At the time, he urged all asylum seekers in the UK to receive training in English, IT and business skills and, after six months, be allowed to work, arguing that there were plenty of jobs that asylum seekers were willing to undertake.

Earlier this month, in written evidence to the home affairs committee inquiry into asylum applications, Hughes highlighted that:-

· Asylum seekers were currently demonised for “sponging” from the state
· The size of the budget for asylum support was widely criticised
· Asylum seekers’ presence in towns during the day encouraged perceptions of indolence and contributed to community tensions
· Many asylum seekers undertook illegal work with all the risks that entails
· Many asylum seekers had skills which were in demand in the UK, and those skills were allowed to deteriorate when not put to good use

Reinstating and extending asylum seekers’ rights to work would provide a solution to many of those problems, he argued.

“Liberal Democrats believe that the arguments in favour of allowing asylum seekers to work far outweigh the argument that the right to work constitutes a ‘pull factor’ for economic migrants to exploit the system,” Hughes concluded.

Communities often feel hostile towards asylum seekers as a result of misperceptions that they “jump the queue” with local services and are “scrounging”.

Nadeem Ahmad, the regional manager of the North East Consortium for Asylum Support Services, believes that allowing asylum seekers to work could ease some community tensions. “It would help in the long-term with settlement and community relations.”

“The government talks about community cohesion. But you feel valued when making a contribution to society,” he added.

However Ahmad warned that in some areas of high unemployment, communities may feel threatened that asylum seekers could take jobs away from local people. He suggested that pilot projects were carried out to establish the pros and cons of allowing asylum seekers to work.

But, while there remains much support for allowing those seeking refuge in the UK to make their contributions to their communities and society, the Home Office stands firm that there are “no plans” to change existing rules.

Instead the spokesperson suggested asylum seekers undertook voluntary work. “It is important asylum seekers are involved in purposeful activity while their asylum claim is being assessed so they can build important skills that they can use in the future and give something back to the community,” the spokesperson said.

Patel is not convinced: “It is in everyone’s interest for asylum seekers to work. The asylum seekers themselves gain independence and dignity,” she said. “Many cultural barriers are broken down in the workplace and it is excellent for community cohesion. And the economy benefits.”

The survey was carried out as part of Community Care’s campaign, Right to Refuge, which calls for fair treatment for asylum seekers and refugees.