CSAN, along with a number of it’s member organisations, has responded to the government’s consultation on Reforming Asylum Support and Family Returns. Read CSAN’s response below.
“Caritas Social Action Network is an agency of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, and is made up of 50 charitable organisations working both professionally and voluntarily in communities with those most in need.
As Catholic organisations we are moved by our faith to firmly reject the government’s proposals to remove support for adults and families whose asylum applications are refused or do not have immigration status, and to increase the forced removal of families from the UK, including through permitting the use of force on children.
We respond in the form of a letter, rather than to the questions laid out in the consultation. This is because we do not accept the terms of the consultation, which accepts enforced returns as necessary. It is also the only way we can communicate our strength of feeling that the government’s direction will fundamentally undermine our commitment – flowing from our faith – to defend the fundamental dignity and equality of all people. This includes the dignity of every child and every adult, regardless of their place of birth or legal status.
Our response is informed by the experiences of the thousands of people in our churches, parishes and schools who will be impacted by these proposals, and with whom we stand alongside in the face of policies and legislation that undermines their ability to live a dignified life. It is informed by the expert knowledge of catholic charities in our network who provide practical and/or casework support for people navigating the immigration system including those who are seeking asylum, have been refused asylum, are made destitute, have been trafficked, are in immigration detention, or are survivors of modern slavery.
The proposed changes to Home Office and local authority support amount to ‘destitution-by-design’ for adults, families and children and cannot be justified. The proposals to expand forced removals of families – including through introducing the use of force against children – ignore all the existing evidence of harm and are morally indefensible. The government’s argument that manufacturing destitution will incentivize families to engage with the returns process is not backed by evidence.
The proposals also risk undermining our obligations under UK and international law. This includes undermining local councils’ safeguarding obligations under the Children’s Act 1989, and risking breaches of Article 3 (inhumane and degrading treatment) and Article 8 (the right to family and private life) of the European Convention of Human Rights.
Furthermore, the proposals undermine the objectives of the Government’s Child Poverty Strategy and Homelessness Strategy. Removing support from families would work against the Government’s ambitions to reduce child poverty and homelessness. It will not be possible for the Government to meaningfully address these issues while forcing more families into destitution through the immigration system. In addition to the life-long impacts of these policies on children, people who are stateless and disabled people would be particularly severely impacted by these changes and the destitution they would manufacture.
Changes to Home Office Support
The removal of section 4 support and replacement with highly restrictive 95a support will drive destitution and homelessness, for adults, children and families, and will completely undermine child poverty strategy and homelessness strategy. The lack of right to appeal against the refusal of this support means that many entitled to it will also be made destitute – many of those initially denied section 4 support are later granted it on appeal.
Research by our member organisation Caritas Salford demonstrates how the increased destitution of families will have wide-reaching consequences on mental and physical health that will lead to impacts in adult life. Groups in our network who work alongside victims of modern slavery have highlighted that when safety nets are removed for those in the asylum system, the pool of people ready to be exploited grows.
Furthermore, fear of immigration control can lead people to avoid accessing education and healthcare, and can also put children at increased risk of statelessness. We know that many of those refused are later given protection following fresh claims – in 2023, 2,294 fresh claims were made according to Home Office data provided to NACCOM – while some are found to be stateless. Once families or individuals are made destitute, it is much harder to navigate the asylum or statelessness process and regularise their status, therefore entrenching destitution.
These impacts will have knock-on effects on other institutions and public services who will pick up the pieces (including schools and charities), stretching schools and services to breaking point and increasing risks of serious harm to children and vulnerable adults.
Changes to Local Authority Support
The proposals reduce the safeguards provided by section 17 of the Children’s Act by making the Home Office the decision-maker about who is entitled to protection. These changes will reduce the ability of local councils to provide essential support to children and families, even when they believe they’re at risk, undermining their safeguarding duties. This support must not be dependent on immigration status.
The challenges children and young people are facing will not go away but will be shifted to schools and other services, who are unable to provide the level of support needed.
Case Study: Importance of Section 17 of the Children’s Act
Caritas Salford, one of our member charities, worked with a woman who had no recourse to public funds following the death of her husband. She and her small child, born in the UK, were sofa-surfing following her husband’s death but became street homeless after a friend could no longer support her. She approached Caritas Salford for help and we contacted Children’s Social Care and the NRPF team at the local authority who were able to provide them with accommodation and financial support through section 17 of the Children Act 1989. She has since been able to make a visa application due to her late husband’s immigration status and living with him in the UK at the time of his death. However, it can take up to a year to receive a decision. Under the proposed changes, this person may be refused Section 17 support, and therefore she and her 2-year-old son would have been left homeless and destitute.
Use of force to increase the removal of families from the UK
We know that the use of force to facilitate removals causes lasting harm, and that families and children face specific harms from the use of force, including separating one parent from a child in order to enforce removal.
Research by our member organisation JRS UK, and extensive evidence from many other charities and professional bodies, has demonstrated that the detention of adults and children for the purposes of immigration control causes lasting harm and that the safeguards designed to protect vulnerable people from being harmed by immigration detention do not work. As a church we denounce immigration detention as a fundamental violation of human dignity.
This policy continues with the government’s direction of increasing the practice of immigration detention despite all the evidence that it causes long-standing physical and psychological harm. It should listen to the detailed evidence from Alternatives to Detention programmes that demonstrate how immigration cases can be resolved in the community without the use of detention and force.”
