Kate Green MP braved the cold of Oxford Road on Friday night to join Manchester University students who were sleeping rough in the city to raise awareness of the thousands of asylum seekers living hungry and homeless in Britain.
The students from Manchester University are volunteering to help people seeking asylum build new lives in the city through national charity STAR (Student Action for Refugee). Last week 20 STAR groups across the country took action in support of the Still Human Still Here campaign. At the event they were joined by students from Amnesty, charity workers and members of the public who all share Kate Green’s view that more must be done to support people fleeing for their lives.
People who are waiting for the Home Office to make a decision on their asylum application are not allowed to work to support themselves. They have fled with nothing but their lives and therefore, without permission to do paid work, are forced to live on state support. A single adult receives just over £5 a day plus special accommodation allocated by the Home Office. This is too low to meet anybody’s basic needs (the Government sets the minimum income through Income Support at over £10 a day plus accommodation).
People who have been refused asylum can receive no support at all, leaving them destitute. The situation is described by the British Red Cross as a humanitarian crisis. The agency gives out over 20,000 food parcels each year to asylum seekers.
Kate Green MP said: “Surely we must recognise the circumstances that drive you to leave your home, your family, everything you know […] that people who have been driven to take such a step need our care and attention not our condemnation and our cruelty.”
“This is an issue we’re not prepared to hide away […] we must, we ought, we are compelled, to treat them as we would want to be treated ourselves”