Photo credit: the Guardian
Up to 21,000 asylum seekers who have waited for over a year for their claims to be processed could be allowed to enter the jobs market so they can support themselves, he Home Office has said.
The Guardian reports that the announcement is part of a package of measures to be announced on Thursday.
As the government seeks to empty asylum hotels, claimants who break the law, work illegally or are found to have enough assets to live without support will from June be ejected and lose their support payment.
The developments have been questioned by the Refugee Council for risking an increase in rough sleeping among those escaping war and famine.
They come as Shabana Mahmood has hir back in a column for the Guardian at demands from senior labour movement figures for ministers to stop focusing on migration and to soften their attacks on the Green party.
The Home Secretary wrote: “Restoring order at our border is not just an embodiment of Labour values, it is the necessary condition for a Labour government to do anything at all.”
Mahmood wrote that Labour’s vision should appeal to the mainstream and be “neither the nightmare of Farage’s borders, effectively open”. She also said the government planned to launch a new “safe and legal” route in the autumn for students seeking refuge.
There are about 30,600 people awaiting asylum claims living in roughly 200 hotels across the UK, and 107,000 people receiving asylum support, the Home Office said.
