As a coalition of more than 300 businesses, trade unions, councils, charities and more who have campaigned for years for the right to work for people seeking sanctuary, the Lift The Ban coalition believes firmly that people who’ve waited more than six months for an asylum decision should be able to look for work, just like anyone else.
The nonsensical ban on work has stopped most people seeking sanctuary from working for far too long, denying them the opportunity to start rebuilding their lives with independence and dignity, and robbing our communities of the chance to benefit from their many skills and talents. It must be lifted.
But it cannot be replaced by an even more absurd, unfair and impractical mandate to work. Denying people asylum support or forcing them into street homelessness if they’ve been unable to find a job would undermine the fundamental right to seek safety. We do not offer people sanctuary because of what we think they can give us, but because we have a duty, as members of an international community, to protect people whose lives are at risk elsewhere.
Punishing sanctuary seekers who’ve been unable to immediately find work in a new country is clearly cruel and impractical. It’s particularly incoherent to threaten people with losing asylum support if they have the right to work while continuing to limit the jobs people seeking sanctuary can do to the narrow list of 25 jobs on the immigration salary list – including racing groom and classical ballet dancer.
And whilst more safe routes are always welcome, the creation of a “route for refugee workers” cannot be made at the expense of safe routes for other refugees, while care must be taken to ensure refugees are not trapped in exploitative work on which their safety is made conditional.
The Government is at risk of weaponising work, undermining the rights of disabled people, people suffering with trauma, and anyone who is not able to work.
It certainly cannot consider enforcing work, whilst actively increasing hostility towards people seeking safety that we know would make it harder for them to secure stable employment. For example, if refugees are to be threatened with deportation every 30 months, employers may view refugees and sanctuary seekers as less stable and secure employees. Meanwhile, many who’ve been trapped in our broken asylum system for years, banned from work and watching their skills stagnate, may struggle to jump immediately back into employment without support.
Any new, much-needed, working rights must be coupled with trauma-informed support for people to re-enter the labour market – not unfair and impractical threats.
Whilst most people seeking sanctuary do want to work, the path back into employment after fleeing war or persecution and arriving in an entirely new country, is rarely an immediate or straightforward one. Our research shows 94% of people seeking sanctuary would like to work if they had permission to do so. They should be helped to seek work freely. Full working rights must be permitted, with help to learn English and transfer qualifications, support for employers, and clear pathways to employment, as recommended by the independent Commission for the Integration of Refugees.
Stripping people of the meagre levels of asylum support they’re allowed will not help people into work. It will not help people ‘integrate’ or ‘contribute’ – it will only abandon people to destitution.