March
16, 2009 - The Guardian newspaper in London has released a short
six-minute film documenting the situation of a number of failed
asylum seekers in the UK. The film looks at how these
migrants survive after they have had their asylum requests
refused - their worries, their problems, their outlook, and
their discontent with how the system has treated them.
The film accompanies news of a new report released today by the
British refugee charity Pafras. According to the report,
entitled 'Underground Lives', the average amount of money
a failed asylum seeker lives on today in the UK is 7.65 GBP,
with a majority living on less than 5 GBP.
Two-thirds of these failed asylum seekers had experienced
torture in their home countries, and following the refusal of
their asylum claims, 72% had spent time sleeping outside.
Of these, 38% had experienced physical attacks, and more than a
third of the women sleeping rough had experienced sexual
assault, including rape.
The report is released in conjunction with a major exposition of
photographs on failed asylum seekers at the Host Gallery in
London. The exposition is associated with the Still
Human, Still Here campaign, a campaign on destitution
being led by a coalition of human rights organisations,
including JRS UK.
The Still Human Still Here campaign is dedicated to highlighting
the plight of tens of thousands of refused asylum seekers who
are destitute in the UK. Supporters of the campaign
believe that the denial of any means of subsistence to refused
asylum seekers as a matter of government policy is both inhumane
and ineffective. Read more at:
http://stillhumanstillhere.wordpress.com/
This is snippet from a documentary on
destitution in the UK. The documentary was made by Nick
Broomfield for Amnesty International and was released last year.
Jesuit Refugee Service Europe -
Rue du Progrès (Vooruitgangstraat) 333/2 - B-1030 Bruxelles -
Belgium
Tel: + 32 2 250 32 20 - Fax: + 32 2 250 32 29 - Email: europe(a)jrs.net
March
16, 2009 - The Guardian newspaper in London has released a short
six-minute film documenting the situation of a number of failed
asylum seekers in the UK. The film looks at how these
migrants survive after they have had their asylum requests
refused - their worries, their problems, their outlook, and
their discontent with how the system has treated them.