IAC Interim Findings March 2008

“Fit for purpose yet?” p.76

EXCERPT:

How asylum seekers with additional vulnerabilities are treated

4 Disabilities

4.1 Disability in asylum seekers

Disabilities amongst asylum seekers may result from their experiences in their country of origin and be connected to the reason they are seeking asylum or they may be independent of it. Their specific needs have particular implications for service provision. WinVisible, a group that works with disabled refugee and asylum seeking women, in their submission to the Commission, argue that:

“The existence and situation of asylum seekers and refugees who have disabilities, often as a consequence of the wars, rape and other torture they fled, is largely invisible in all areas of policy-making, in service provision and public awareness.”

Submission:WinVisible

4.2 Services for disabled asylum seekers

Asylumseekers are not entitled to disability-related benefits. They can request a community care assessment fromsocial services and the relevant local authority decides whether they are eligible to receive services and whether they will charge for these services. It has been argued that entitlements to services for disabled asylumseekers are confusing and unclear. Lack of awareness of entitlements exists amongst service providers as well as asylum seekers themselves.39 The Commission received evidence from a wheelchair user from Kenya who campaigned as a disability activist. No suitable NASS accommodation was available and so a solicitor appealed to the local council to ask them to take responsibility for housing him:

“The only accessible accommodation that the local council could find was in an elderly people’s home. I lived there with three young disabled people for more than two years and 24 elderly people as well. The food and care were really inadequate.We had no spending money as the council said our needs were fully met at the home.We hated living there. We complained to the National Care Standards who agreed that the place was not ‘ideal’. Now I live in rented accommodation, but it’s not accessible. I have to use two wheelchairs to manage about in the house”. Submission: Anonymous

“The lodging I was given had no ramp, and so I had to be lifted by my neighbours every

time I went into my home. I made friends quickly back then – I had to in order to survive!”

Romeo. Hearing: Cardiff.

For full testimonies please visit www.humanrightstv.com

39 Harris, J. (2003) All doors are closed to us: a social model analysis of experiences of disabled asylum seekers and refugees in Britain