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Ask SID - BME

Social Information on Disability
Black & Minority Ethnic Communities

“Making disability information accessible to individuals from Black & Minority Ethnic groups”


June 2009

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A one year project funded by the EHRC (Equality & Human Rights Commission).



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Focus Group 2 - Refugee & Asylum Seekers


The information provided to refugees and asylum seekers is generally related to their legal status, and often does not include information on support related to any disability they may have. This is because the majority of primary service providers do not have expertise or knowledge of disability issues.

By undertaking this work we now have a better understanding of the process refugees and asylum seekers go through in order to legally reside in this country, the legal responsibilities the statutory services have and the part the voluntary sector plays in creating and maintaining structured programmes of support to promote general wellbeing and social inclusion.

Outcomes from this project:

  1. Established links with the national primary information providers to learn about the asylum process and the statutory entitlement to support for disabled refugees and asylum seekers
  2. Set up communications with Surrey County Council and neighbouring county support teams
  3. Created networks amongst the voluntary sector service providers in and around Surrey and local initiatives supported

1. The Asylum Seeker process, the national perspective and statistics


Refugee Council Online.Refugee Council Online

It must be said at the outset that the asylum process is very complex and subject to change and we therefore recommend that individuals and organisations seeking the most current information contact the Refugee Council based in London.

What is the definition of an asylum seeker and a refugee?

Put in its simplest terms, a person is labelled an “asylum seeker” when they have lodged a claim with the Immigration & National Directorate at the Home Office and are waiting for a decision on that claim. Their claim is assessed on the basis of their credibility, the current political situation and human rights record of their country and if applicable, medical evidence of torture and abuse. Asylum seekers are not eligible for disability allowances.

An asylum applicant is only granted “refugee” status if they meet the criteria laid down in the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees (in PDF format). They are then granted asylum and given a residence permit that allows them to live in the UK for 5 years. People with refugee status are entitled to disability benefits and to access social services in the same way as any other UK citizen. This can include help for people with physical, mental, health and learning disabilities and sensory impairments.

Those who are not recognised as refugees under the Refugee Convention but who are at risk of persecution if returned to their country of origin are granted Humanitarian Protection for 5 years. Similarly if they cannot be removed for other reasons e.g. illness, Discretionary Leave is granted for 3 years.

All of these status types affect the right to claim benefits and support whether a disability is in evidence or not. For an overview of rights and entitlements go to the Refugee Council and a leaflet called Positive Decision on your Asylum Application and "The Process & The Statutory Sector" (extracted from the UK Border Agency website).

UK Border Agency.UK Border Agency

The Government body responsible for asylum issues is currently the UK Border Agency (UKBA), the new executive agency of the Home Office who recently took over responsibilities from NASS (National Asylum Support Service).The agency assumes the responsibilities of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) for managing immigration control in the UK, including applications for permission to stay, citizenship and asylum.

An application for asylum starts at an Asylum Screening Unit in Croydon or Liverpool unless screening is done at their port of entry. After a brief interview and identification is established, an Application Registration Card is given to them and they are allocated a Case Owner. It is only when the first meeting is held with the Case Owner that an asylum seeker is able to discuss any special needs they may have which can include information on disability issues. The Case Owners responsibilities include assessing the level of support needed which includes housing and living costs and they aim to conclude an application within six months.

If asylum seekers or their family members have exceptional needs, it is possible to apply in writing to the UKBA for extra support explaining what the extra income is intended for and how they have coped without adequate support until that time. This is at the discretion of the Home Secretary and is rarely granted. UKBA support however, is inappropriate for asylum seekers with severe or enduring disabilities, or other special needs.

In theory, support for people with a disability is therefore via two routes.

The first is through Community Care services delivered by local authority Social Services teams and is usually free of charge. They have a duty to carry out a full community care assessment under Section 47 (1) of the NHS and Community Care Act 1990 and applicants should be assessed using the same criteria as UK residents, based on the severity of their need. In an emergency, the local authority has a duty to house someone while the assessment is being carried out. A guide to the NHS is provided on the Department for Health website and is translated in to many languages.

Under Section 21 of the National Assistance Act (NAA) 1948, support includes residential accommodation for individuals, including asylum seekers and failed asylum seekers, “in need of care and attention” due to:

Alternative housing and extra support may be offered which can include:

The second is through local One Stop Services such as the Migrant Helpline and Refugee Action who provide advice and support to newly arrived asylum seekers to help them access support from the BIA. The Refugee Council give practical advice and promote refugee rights in the UK and abroad (see reference pages). Their concern is that the UK Border Agency needs to take a wider view of the nature of disability to encompass mental illness and conditions such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Many detained asylum seekers suffer from mental illness that goes largely unrecognised and untreated. They also recommend that reasonable adjustments should be made to ensure that arrangements for reporting are sensitive to the needs of people with disabilities.

There seems to be considerable confusion about the responsibilities of the different agencies and the UKBA, a lack of co-ordinated information and service provision and gaps in professional knowledge on disability-related entitlements. Typical barriers to accessing services include a lack of interpreters, including sign language interpreters, lack of knowledge among Department of Work and Pension Staff about disability issues and long waiting times (ICAR November 2008).

In reality the only people whom the statutory services are obliged to support are unaccompanied minors. This is because the Home Office set up NASS to take over the role of providing support to asylum seekers from local authorities in April 2000.

Asylum Support Partnership.Asylum Support Partnership

In our search to speak with other voluntary sector agencies, we contacted a Policy Advisor with the Asylum Support Partnership Team (ASPT) - five agencies funded by the Home Office to deliver independent and confidential advice to asylum seekers: Migrant Helpline, Refugee Action, Refugee Council, Scottish Refugee Council and Welsh Refugee Council. None of these agencies has a presence within Surrey County Council borders. It was her opinion that Home Counties such as Surrey have taken the view that asylum is largely a London Borough problem mainly because of the dispersal policy. Refugees have traditionally been dispersed to London particularly if they had a friend residing there and can seek temporary shelter. Surrey is not a designated dispersal area so only refugees with contacts that are residents in the county can register for support.

The Statistics:

The number of asylum seekers in the UK in 2007 was more than 570,000 but there is no official figure for disabled asylum seekers (the Home Office). The collation of statistics on refugees is problematic and patchy, mainly because once the Home Office grants refugee status, the government no longer records any statistical information on them because they are then regarded as UK residents, mainstreamed into services and not subject to immigration control in the same way as before. (ICAR - Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees, February 2009).

Regional statistical data is available (in PDF format) for asylum seekers who are supported by the Home Office but none are currently recorded as living within Surrey County Council borders.

The four regions with the greatest number of asylum seekers supported by NASS subsistence only and in NASS accommodation are Greater London (20.39%), Yorkshire & Humberside (16.91%), North West (14.4%) and the West Midlands (11.62%). In the years 2000-2005 the top ten main nationalities of asylum applicants are from Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iran, China, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Turkey, Serbia and Montenegro (Age Concern).

The numbers of disabled people seeking asylum in the UK is not known. What is clear is that those who do reside here all too often fall between the two stools of social care and asylum support provision. (Living Now magazine February 2009).

2. Statutory Service Provision in and on the borders of Surrey


Surrey County Council.Surrey County Council

Surrey is not a dispersal area for the UK. However it does have a regular daily influx of unaccompanied minors and adults. In Surrey, support to minors is provided by The Children’s Services Asylum Team within Surrey County Council which is based at Epsom Town Hall, The Parade, Epsom, Surrey KT18 5BY. There are currently thirteen officers on the team and their role includes providing advice and support to the rest of the county regarding asylum issues. On average, during 2008, the team handled nine new unaccompanied minor cases a month. This brings the average number of existing and new active clients per month up to 162.

A team within Surrey also exists to support adults with HIV and AIDs and is managed by Dawn Scully, Care Manager, Social Services. They undertake Community Care Assessments and provide both emotional and practical support. Given the current caseload, there is a need for a coordinated referral pathway and information on all agencies and professionals who can support her clients, plus more intensive mental health, counselling and emotional support.

One Stop Services are run by charitable organisations to offer help and advice with the asylum process and life in the United Kingdom. At present there are no One Stop Services in the county of Surrey however a proposal was discussed in 2008 by the Asylum Support Team and partners from education and health in response to the Every Child Matters agenda. The aim would be to ensure that all minors have a full health assessment which includes a screening tool to detect any mental health issues is carried out within 28 days of arrival so that health needs can be identified and addressed quickly. Learning needs would also be assessed to aid the process of obtaining an appropriate place in education.

Several One Stop Services, for both minors and adults, exist within East Sussex and Kent and are run by charitable organisations.

The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames.The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames

The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames is a refugee “hub” and works in partnership with voluntary sector agencies such as Refugee Action who have a national remit and have offices across England.

The Community Development Worker for refugees, asylum seekers, gypsies and travellers at Kingston is Phil Murwill. He is in the early stages of designing a guide that will assist staff in GP surgeries to ensure GPs provide an accessible service to refugees and asylum seekers. Some GP surgery staff have raised that they are not entirely clear on asylum eligibility documentation or evidence they should be using to clarify patients eligibility or rights to health services. The guide aims to make their role of information and service provider easier and should ultimately improve the level and efficiency of the service received by the client. The guide will initially be given to GP surgeries in the most populated areas of Kingston and training will be offered. The clear messages in the guide have been verified by The Refugee Council and include guidance on forms of identification, for example the IS96 letter from the Home Office which proves that an individual has an asylum case pending.

The guide will be ready for distribution in the latter half of 2009 and will be followed by a ‘when to go where’ leaflet which could be translated into core languages. More recently he has also been looking at making a multilingual appointment card so that service users are aware of where and when they have an appointment booked.

3. The Voluntary Sector in and near Surrey Borders - local initiatives

The nearest support organisation we were able to visit is Refugee Action Kingston. Their Director is Rebecca Mear and their support extends to those refugees residing within Surrey County Council borders who are able to travel to see them. They are funded by a strategic grant from Kingston Borough Council and the PCT plus donations from Comic Relief, The Big Lottery and Children In Need.

RAK operates a counselling service for women and addresses a wide range of mental health issues. Interpreters for this service are vital and these are mainly volunteers. Arabic and Korean are the prevalent languages at present.

Because unaccompanied minors are the only people who the council have a statutory obligation to support, RAK aim to fill the gap in a holistic way via advice, skills development and learning opportunities - all of which they would usually encounter barriers to accessing. 722 households are registered with them. They advertise the service via GP surgeries and Learning Centres and complete a needs diagnosis at point of referral. They have a close working relationship with the PCT. (The PCT does not issue any ID card to service users or GPs. All forms of ID are issued by the Home Office and NASS).

Services:

  1. Advice on legal immigration, benefits, housing, schools and health
  2. Women's counselling service
  3. Twice weekly basic literacy skills training (20 volunteers)
  4. Health days with the PCT and interpreters
  5. Voluntary programme encouraging refugees and asylum seekers to become volunteers and develop their skills and confidence for employment
  6. Annual summer play scheme for children aged 5-10 plus a Christmas party
  7. English lessons and activities for young people aged 11-16
  8. Clothing events to collect and distribute clothes, toys, books and household items
Kingston Centre for Independent Living (KCIL).Kingston Centre for Independent Living (KCIL)

Disability needs are referred to the Kingston Centre for Independent Living (KCIL) where Veronica Attah is the BME Disability Officer. Part of Veronica’s role is to raise awareness of the services that are available to disabled refugees, to try and establish supportive peer groups and bring about change. One of the main barriers to encouraging this group and other BME people to access disability services (apart from language) is that many do not identify with being disabled in the first place. She recommends widening the focus of any campaign or workshop to that of “health” so that disability is discussed alongside a range of topics e.g. eye loss, hearing loss, HIV and AIDS. Other than the referrals she receives from RAK, the support she provides is spread by word of mouth. No referrals come from the health sector or Social Services Asylum teams.

Kingston Interpreting Service .

Kingston Interpreting Service has designed two cards to assist refugees and asylum seekers who need the help of an interpreter or sign language support when accessing services. (See PDFs Online). Many are refused this vital help despite their inability to speak English or if they have a hearing impairment. The cost is covered by the PCT, no application form is necessary and service users can leave a message on the KIS answer phone which has a recorded outgoing message in five languages. They are particularly needed when approaching GPs and Job Centres; benefits agencies and social services are also often unaware of the support this group are entitled to. The cards carry a reminder of authority's legal duties to promote race equality and of The Disability Discrimination Act requiring service providers to make “reasonable adjustments”. They are supported by Kingston Primary Care Trust, Kingston Hospital NHS Trust and The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames.

The Refugee Project Croydon.The Refugee Project Croydon

A similar organisation to RAK operates in Croydon called The Refugee Project Croydon and is run by Anna Salamanca.

British Red Cross.British Red Cross

The Guildford office of the Red Cross runs an orientation project for refugees and asylum seekers and is managed by Yangchhen Yeshi who was herself a Tibetan refugee. The project funding is primarily for the Portsmouth and Southampton area where they have built up referral systems. In Surrey, whilst there are isolated groups of asylum seekers, there is currently no mapping process and in the particular case of mental health needs, the most prevalent disability she witnesses, there is no signposting system in place. Yangchhen’s view is that whilst Surrey remains an area from which refugees and asylum seekers are dispersed, a One Stop Service is probably not required but coordination of all of the services offering support is vital to ensure that signposting is available to this highly vulnerable group.

Some of Yangchhen’s clients are asylum seekers who have been refused residency status but are unable to be repatriated due to their need to wait for the necessary paperwork i.e. confirmation that their country of origin will accept them (some asylum seekers claim to be from a country that is not their country of birth/origin making repatriation invalid). This paperwork can sometimes take several weeks and sometimes months before it is available and it is during this period when housing and subsistence services are removed that asylum seekers become destitute and extremely vulnerable. The Red Cross provide 4-6 weeks of financial support, emergency provisions and clothing.

It was agreed that a network of Surrey and cross border support groups and agencies would be very valuable to those working in this field so that they could meet 2 or 3 times a year, share caseload issues, disseminate information in a practical and supportive way and ultimately clients would receive clearer signposting and an improved quality of service. See the current network list.

Summary

1. Disabled refugees and asylum seekers face particular and often multiple disadvantages; experience of war or torture, cultural and linguistic differences and a system of rights and entitlements for immigrants that is complex and increasingly restrictive. This means that this population present a very specific set of needs and experiences. Some of these are shared with the UK's existing ethnic minority populations, but others are additional and “refugee specific”. (Supporting disabled refugees and asylum seekers: opportunities for new approaches (in PDF format). City Hall London November 2008).

Whilst the national criteria for support for people with disabilities is well laid out, in practice it appears that the bulk of the essential day to day support is being provided by the voluntary sector. The UKBA needs to recognise all disabilities, however seemingly invisible and include outreach as part of its ongoing strategy. It also needs to develop a strategy that betters supports those asylum seekers who are waiting for a residency decision or are in the process of appeal or repatriation. Unrecognised and untreated mental disabilities which can be caused by prolonged trauma, abuse and isolation need to be part of a programme of care and support which starts at the beginning of the process, not just when residency status is granted.

2. In Surrey as is the case nationwide, very few mainstream disability organisations are working with disabled asylum seekers and refugees and the voluntary refugee support services outside Surrey County Councils borders are providing the bulk of the support. The voluntary services are, however, restricted by lack of funding and resources and unless they network with disability experts, they can lack the knowledge to deal with the many issues their clients face. Barriers to accessing services stem from language problems and the cost/lack of interpreters; the impact of immigration status on health and benefit entitlements, cultural misunderstandings, and the stigma attached to disability in some refugee populations.

A One Stop Service in Surrey would be most welcome as it would aim to reduce the length of time application processing takes and aid the detection of potential mental health issues. If this service cannot be provided, all of the Surrey organisations who work in this field need to work closely and coordinate their efforts with those on our borders so that activities and learning can be synchronised and clients can be cross referred as a matter of course.

3. Improving the routes and methods of communication for this client group so that they find accessing every day services for health, education, housing and social welfare an easier task is a significant challenge. It is important to note that our terminology is often confusing. Those with a mental and /or physical disability respond better to an offer of support when their needs are placed under the heading of "health", as the word “disability” is not widely recognised or understood.

Over the course of the last nine months, collaboration and networking between local and regional disability organisations, neighbouring county and borough councils, health services, refugee support services and the relevant departments of the voluntary sector has already raised awareness of the range of skills and support that exist and the new initiatives that are being launched.

It is vital that these groups continue to work together to share current thinking so that practices can be regularly reviewed, policies developed, funding sought and ultimately that support for disabled refugees and asylum seekers is more consistent in its delivery.

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