AYS Daily Digest 14/12/2020—UK: High Court rules that Home Office failed to protect destitute people
By: Are You Syrious
Tags: Refugees, Digest, Border Violence, Migrants, Home Office

AYS Daily Digest 14/12/2020—UK: High Court rules that Home Office failed to protect destitute people

Trieste. Photo via Lorena Fornasir. Her caption: Here it is, in the foreground, my little cart. It will weigh 15 kg, sometimes even 20. Inside is everything: bandages, bandages, bandages, silver, gentamycin, soap. Under the first layer opens the world of socks, underwear, hoodies, duvets but it’s not over. Deep down there is no shortage of chocolate or dry fruit that immediately return calories. It’s our way of waiting for them. Someone comes in, asks for food, shoes and then runs away with the first train. We’re here even if they don’t come, or a few come and disappear. The world’s square has become a workshop of joyful sociality, attendance and absences, like a creek sometimes in full dry, sometimes using the metaphor of my friend Massimo Schneider. Their absence, at this strange stage, is a presence that makes you feel. We’ll be here tomorrow and the day after tomorrow and tomorrow to testify, we’ll still testify, arrivals deported, arrivals rejected, arrivals hijacked.

FEATURE

UK Home Office failed to protect destitute people, court rules

The British High Court of Justice handed down a 71-page judgement today where it ruled that The Home Office failed to protect destitute people from homelessness. The Home Office did not monitor the private contracts it handed out to manage accommodation, which led to lengthy delays in providing accommodation and terrible living conditions.

Because of the delays in processing housing and aid, the claimants in the case (along with countless other people on the move) were left homeless for extended periods of time. This violates the Home Office’s obligations according to The Immigration and Asylum Act of 1999. Instead of actually monitoring the private companies they handed out contracts to, the Home Office claimed that it was the people’s own fault that they became homeless due to “unwillingness to travel,” not because of the Office’s negligence.

I was left hanging on, waiting to be picked up by the contractors to be taken to accommodation, and each time there was a different reason as to why the pickup did not happen. Eventually I had to wait and not move from the pickup point, and yet I was still not picked up. The Home Office failed to listen to what I was saying, choosing to blame me for contractors failings. The judge has made clear that this is wrong. The Home Office should have listened to me.”

The ruling that found that The Home Office’s failures are responsible for the destitution of many people on the move comes just two weeks after the UK passed rules that made it possible for the government to deport someone for sleeping rough.

Advocates are criticizing these rules for a variety of reasons. They mentioned that criminalizing homelessness could push people into unsafe working conditions and even modern slavery. The cruelty of passing this rule during a pandemic and economic downturn when many people, especially those with jobs in service industries, have lost their jobs, is also astounding.

The rules are also arbitrary. The government said that they would not apply to “refugees and asylum seekers” but what about people waiting for decisions on their status, or people that have been wrongfully denied asylum? They also said that the rule would be used “sparingly,” but who gets to determine what “sparingly” means? How do they define “rough sleeping?” Advocates from PILC have pointed out that the rules are so vague that technically, someone sleeping overnight in an airport to catch an early flight could get deported.

The rule should not be applied “sparingly,” it should not be applied at all. Many local councils agree—some, such as the Greater London Authority, have already said they would not cooperate with this rule. In Sheffield, one local group, Sheffield Against Asylum Evictions, has gone a step further and organizes eviction defense to prevent people from having to sleep rough in the first place (and they’re exposing shady landlords).

The Home Office cannot push people into destitution and then punish them for the Office’s mistakes.