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Unpublished letter to the Guardian 10 July 2003 Dear Editor, Your article “Vulnerable face new heartbreak” (Guardian 9 July) raises “questions about the role charities undertake with government grants and whether it is undermining their aims.” As an independent women’s legal service we have first hand experience of the privatisation of asylum services, which the government has contracted out to charities like the Refugee Council (RC). Organisations which previously provided independent advice and support, are now embedded with the Home Office, making women and children homeless or running slum accommodation. Many of the women the RC puts on the street come to us. Without funding, we do our best to provide cooked meals, access to lawyers and fight to get everyone a place for the night. Even when we found hostel space for those sleeping rough, the RC refused to authorise payment. An increasing number of desperate women use our premises to meet. Last week, as we came up against refusal after refusal from charities and hostels, the women decided they had had enough. With our help, over 30 of them lobbied the RC. At least half had been sleeping rough, including a mother with a 3-year old child, traumatised rape survivors and women who are seriously ill. Others were housed at the infamous Eurotower where they share toilets and bathrooms with men. One woman had just been raped there. There was no sign that the RC found their plight “heartbreaking”. They refused to speak to them. One RC worker even accused the women of “exaggerating”. It is time the voluntary sector stopped shedding crocodile tears. The latest immigration laws could not have been brought in, or would not have had such devastating impact, if organisations like the RC had turned down fat government contracts and carried on defending human rights. For too many asylum is no longer a human right but an industry. Yours sincerely, Niki Adams |