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A study in Scotland has found tens of hundreds of asylum seekers and refugees living in destitution (12 June 2012)

Date: 12/06/2012
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, A study in Scotland has found tens of hundreds of asylum seekers and refugees living in destitution

Destitution for the purpose of the study has been defined as being without any financial support and unable to work.
Researchers at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) in its survey have suggested that nearly 100 asylum seekers and refugees living in Scotland’s biggest city were in a state of destitution.
On an average people were found to be destitute for one and a half years but one of the participants of the survey had been destitute for six and a half years it emerged.
Researchers at GCU counted the number of people who presented as destitute to 13 support agencies and services over a one-week period from March 5 to March 11 2012. And they found that almost a quarter, 88 people out 364, were destitute.

The survey included individuals who were yet to register themselves as asylum seekers and those who have been granted refugee status.

The largest group was those who have been refused asylum, whose appeal rights were exhausted and having no access to public funds. They accounted for two thirds of all responses.

People surveyed came from 29 different countries, the most commonly recorded being Iran, Iraq, Sudan and Zimbabwe.

The survey was commissioned by the charities Refugee Survival Trust, the British Red Cross and Scottish Refugee Council and carried out by lead researcher Morag Gillespie from GCU's Scottish Poverty Information Unit.

She said that coping with destitution at any time was a traumatic experience, but to do so for more than a year-and-a-half, the average time as revealed in this study was truly bleak existence.

She added that the strategies adopted by this group to cope with the immense pressures, like volunteering were both impressive and inspiring.

Marie Hayes, Red Cross operations director for West Central and South West Scotland, said that in this day and age destitution should not be an outcome of the asylum system. A proper asylum support program should be created including allowing them to work at least the applicant is either removed or granted leave to remain.

In the meantime, there should be additional support for all destitute asylum seekers with dependent children she added.

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