Changing the support system for asylum seekers

Abstract

The issues of asylum and the treatment of asylum seekers have once again hit the headlines in the UK. The recent problems in Kosovo in the former Yugoslavian territory have made the problem of dealing with asylum claims more acute. The past arrangements for asylum seekers have been inadequate and piecemeal and have developed as a result of changes made in 1996 and the subsequent intervention by the judiciary. The cost to the British taxpayer of the pre-1999 Act asylum arrangements has been over 500 million per year, 80 per cent of which has been spent on accommodating and supporting asylum seekers. There is also a huge backlog of cases and current figures are indicative of a system that is unable to cope. It is in the light of these problems that the Government has passed the 1999 Immigration and Asylum Act. This Article examines the changes that will be made to UK asylum law by the 1999 Act and assesses the problems that may be caused by those changes in the areas of housing and other forms of assistance and the effect that these may have on families and children seeking asylum in the UK.

Keywords:

• Accommodation
• Asylum
• Children
• Dispersal
• Housing
• Support