Government proposals to remove support from asylum seekers with children are unlikely to persuade families to leave, but will cause homelessness and destitution

Mercy Moyo paid to be smuggled to Britain from Zimbabwe in 2002 after her anti-government activist father was beaten by Zanu-PF supporters and subsequently died. Yet her asylum application was turned down. Too frightened to return to Zimbabwe and with all support terminated, Moyo became destitute. For more than a year, she was homeless, briefly sleeping rough. “In this country, it is so cold in the winter that you can die when you are living in the streets,” she says.

“It was tough. You have no privacy. I was crying all the time. Once, I was crazy enough to ask a lady for money and she gave me £5. I bought a day travel ticket and I just took the bus all day. The whole day I kept getting on different buses. I had nowhere to go.”

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Moyo ended up staying with members of her local church in Derby and in 2011, after two appeals, was granted indefinite leave to remain in Britain. She now lives with her two children, aged four and five, is qualified as a beautician and childminder and volunteers for the British Red Cross (BRC). “I’ve been in situations of destitution, pain, rejection,” she says. “Now I want to make a difference in other people’s lives.”

Moyo didn’t have children when she was destitute, but from next July there may be thousands of families, refused asylum, who could find themselves with nowhere to go and no state support. The government intends to withdraw £36.95 a week cash payments from all asylum seekers who have exhausted their appeal rights to stay in Britain and do not leave the country within 28 days. A Home Office consultation paper published earlier this month estimates that as many as 2,900 families, totalling about 10,000 parents and their children could be affected.

“It will drive people to suicide,” says Elinah Laboso who six years ago fled violence in Kenya. “Everyone who came here to seek asylum left their home because of what they’d gone through. We can’t go back.”

It will drive people to suicide. People left their homes because of what they’d gone through. We can’t go back.”

Laboso received Section 4 support when she was refused asylum after her final appeal. This provided her with “no-choice” accommodation and an Azure prepayment card with credit of £35.39 a week that could be used only in specific shops to buy essential food and toiletries. She received no cash. “I used to walk with my small baby for two hours to reach Tesco,” she says. “I didn’t have any money to get the bus.” When her second child was born, she found herself in hospital without money to buy basics for her baby. She was helped by local charity Dash (Destitute Asylum Seekers Huddersfield) but survival was precarious until she was recently given leave to remain in Britain.

But under the new proposed rules, the statutory support she received could be cut off. According to the immigration minister, James Brokenshire, the asylum system encourages the view that Britain is “a land of milk and honey”. The government wants to bring the rules for asylum seekers with children into line with the rules for single adults. Under current rules, those without children whose applications are refused – and who don’t fit the tight criteria for section 4 support – become destitute. Given that people are often traumatised, that access to legal advice is limited and the application process notoriously complicated, mistakes are common. Last year, the Asylum Support Appeals Project represented 674 destitute asylum seekers at the Asylum Support Tribunal and won support for 65% of its cases.

In the proposals put forward by the government over the last few weeks compassion is really lacking

Last year, the BRC supported 5,000 destitute asylum seekers in the UK. “There are many complex reasons why failed asylum seekers cannot be safely returned,” says Andy Hewett, BRC’s refugee support development manager. “The removal of support is unlikely to incentivise families to return but is likely to result in a significant rise in the number of families facing homelessness and destitution in the UK.”

Stephen Hale, chief executive at Refugee Action, says the government is seeking to create a climate of fear and misinformation around refugees, paving the way for punitive legislation. “We need a rules-based system,” says Hale. “But we also need a system that’s based on principles of compassion and humanity. In the proposals put forward by the government over the last few weeks that compassion is really lacking.”Moyo’s year of homelessness and Laboso’s six-year struggle are testament to what people will endure to live in a country of relative safety. Mercy says: “You want to go to school, to uni, to get a job. All you want is to look after yourself.”

Some names have been changed