High Court to rule on section 4 support changes
The High Court has granted refugee status to a failed asylum seeker as it considers whether changes to the housing and support system are lawful.
The Asylum Support Appeals Project, which defends the legal rights of asylum seekers, referred two cases to solicitors to apply for judicial reviews for two people who, it says, were left destitute by new rules.
Since October last year, failed asylum seekers who want to submit fresh evidence to a claim made before 5 March 2007 must travel to Liverpool in person. Before they could do this by post.
They cannot receive section 4 support – which gives failed asylum seekers accommodation and a small amount of financial support each week – until they make an appointment, get to Liverpool, and their application is approved.
The two people referred by the ASAP had been unable to get through on the telephone to book an appointment to re-apply for asylum. The judicial review will look at whether it is right to leave people in this situation without financial help and accommodation.
The judge granted the two asylum seekers emergency section 4 ‘type’ support in December – when the judicial review was sought - and has now agreed to give one refugee status.
Solicitor in the case Sue Willman, from firm Pierce Glynn, said: ‘The Home Office policy left him without support. They left someone from Darfur on the streets in the middle of January without housing and support.’
Colin McCloskey, solicitor with the ASAP, said: ‘Even if you can get to Liverpool you might be four weeks without housing – you need emergency support.’
The High Court has received two other applications for judicial reviews, which say demanding failed asylum seekers travel to Liverpool is unlawful.
The judge has chosen one of these as a test case and will return to the other once it has delivered its verdict on the Home Office’s new rules.
The Home Office said it was unable to comment on any of the cases.
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