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Letter to the Home Secretary calling for Suspension of Travel for Asylum Seekers Amid Coronavirus Outbreak

20 March 2020

We are a coalition of Scotland and UK based refugee charities and groups working directly with people from refugee and asylum seeking communities.

In light of the Coronavirus outbreak, we are dismayed to learn that asylum seekers are still being forced to go to Liverpool to hand in documents despite official guidelines advising people to avoid travel except in an emergency.

Currently, anyone seeking asylum in the UK is required to lodge their submissions personally at the Liverpool Home Office – a process that can take as little as five minutes.

This week, one of Positive Action in Housing’s service users,  Nadiyah, 48, travelled directly to Liverpool by Aviva train to lodge her new asylum application at the Liverpool Home Office. She has serious health problems and is a high-risk category. Due to poverty and poor diet and the stress of Home Office delays that run into years, asylum seekers especially are likely to have weakened immune systems and catch infections. Surprisingly the train she travelled on was packed, so potentially full of infection. There were also two Iranian asylum seekers making the same journey. Her lawyer did phone the Home Office in Liverpool to suggest that while the Coronavirus epidemic is in progress, clients should be allowed to post their documents. The Home Office refused to consider this.

Such travel requirements are unduly harsh in normal circumstances. In the context of the current outbreak, it is reckless and puts many lives at risk. We therefore call on the Home Office to suspend the current rules and allow documents to be sent by post or handed in to the local Home Office departments. We therefore call on the the Home Office to put public health first, and allow refugees and asylum seekers to post their submissions instead of travelling long distance on public transport”

Mae L Smith

For more information about positive action in housing go to www.positiveactionh.org

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