Charities blame Home Office asylum backlog for homelessness trend
Number of African street sleepers soars
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The capital has seen a rise in the number of African nationals sleeping on its streets – a trend charities claim is a result of Home Office efforts to clear its asylum seeker backlog.
More than a tenth of the 3,017 rough sleepers counted by charity Broadway in 2007/08 were African nationals, figures released to Inside Housing have shown. Rough sleeping figures have climbed by 17 per cent overall during the last three years. Almost 60 per cent of rough sleepers with African backgrounds were Eritrean.
Petra Salva, head of London Street Rescue at Thames Reach, said homelessness agencies had devoted ‘substantial resources’ to helping Eritrean people over the past year. Broadway chief executive Howard Sinclair predicted that without help the number of African nationals living on the streets could increase further.
‘The Home Office is looking at working through the cases,’ he said. ‘As people are given leave to stay but without proper support it could get even higher.’
Dave Stamp, project manager at midlands charity ASIST, added: ‘Eritrea is one of the countries where the Home Office pursues an “ostrich” policy, refusing asylum to people with absolutely no prospect of a return home.’
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