Belonging - Asylum

Asylum - "A safe or inviolable place of refuge"
www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics
The world I live in is relatively stable. That isn't true for a huge number of people. I'm lucky I belong to the UK tribe & I take asylum, according to the definition, as normal, as my right.

Many members of my tribe want to retain this comfort and safety & don't particularly want to share it with others. I am sad to discover that I didn't have an accurate picture of what life is like for an asylum seeker.

They get no Income Support or Housing Benefit. Because they won't have National Insurance contributions, they don't get the benefits associated with them.They are not allowed to work so can't get Jobseekers Allowance. The support they get comes from the UK Border Agency. A single adult gets £36.62 a week. A couple get £72.52 a week. A child aged 1-3 gets £3 extra. If they apply for asylum immediately upon arrival in the UK they are given somewhere to live, but can be sent anywhere in the UK.

According to Home Office stat's in 2011 there were 20,000 applications. Of 17,496 initial decisions in 2011 68% were refusals. In 2012 there were 65% refusals in the first quarter. We are hardly letting people flock in. There is a huge backlog and people can be waiting in limbo for years for a decision.

Try as I might to imagine what it must be like to have to leave your own country & everyone & everything you know, to flee from persecution of one sort of another - I can't do it. I just don't have the relevant experiences in my life. To then have to go through the emotional turmoil that awaits in our imperfect system is also beyond my comprehension. I would imagine that mental and physical health problems must be rife. Asylum seekers must feel overwhelmed, hopeless & depressed. All of that on top of whatever persecution they have already experienced & the persecution they experience from some members of our UK tribe.

I am aware this is a complex problem & we live on a fairly densely populated island. But many of these people are highly educated & skilled. Even if they are not, by an large they want to work. Even if it's only to alleviate the boredom of their existance & make them feel they are doing something worthwhile. Surely it would be better to allow them to support themselves through work? I would be more sympathetic to the people who say they are taking our jobs if those people were willing to take any job to support themselves & take responsibility for their own lives.