Hi,
Welcome to our new blog which will feature articles from different people around Refugee Action, refugees and asylum seekers and others who are working and campaigning on refugee issues.
Today Guardian Society has published a front page article on asylum support cuts. Their journalist, Rowenna Davis, lived with a lone parent asylum seeker and her daughter for a week to try and understand the extent of the poverty they are experiencing.
I think for me, apart from being shocked and moved at the daily struggle they go through, often for years while their claim is in process; I was primarily angry that a woman with obvious skills, resourcefulness and a desire to work, should be denied the right to support herself and her daughter and forced to live on meagre hand outs.
I also think it’s terrible that children should grow up in these conditions, feeling as though they are second class citizens. That’s why Refugee Action has started a campaign against cuts to asylum support which will affect single people over 25 who will now only receive £35.13 a week, and lone parents like Shakira who will face a real terms fall in their income to £42.16 a week.
If you’d like to help us to reverse these cuts, please take our online action to send an email to Immigration Minister Phil Woolas asking him not to penalise the poorest by cutting asylum support.
http://www.refugee-action.org.uk/campaigns/destitution/jul09_s95cuts_action.aspx
Posted by Sara Ayech