This is an extract from a talk given by Lindsay Cross at a recent briefing meeting on asylum issues chaired by the Bishop of Newcastle:
“For the last 7 years, West End Refugee Service, based in a vicarage in the Arthur's Hill area, has welcomed those fleeing persecution from many countries across the world. The organisation, which began with a small group of volunteers distributing clothing and food parcels from a garage in Fenham, has grown with an extraordinary and alarming rapidity as it has struggled to meet the ever-increasing needs of its clients. The picture at WERS is mirrored in every refugee support organisation across the city. We are currently supporting some 130 destitute clients. All we can offer is a £5 weekly payment, a bag of food and toiletries when we have them to give.
At WERS we see how the physical and mental health of those evicted from their accommodation rapidly deteriorates. Sleeping rough under bushes, in telephone boxes or on building sites or trying to find a floor on which to spend the night is exhausting and debilitating. Many of our clients become depressed and some suicidal. The extraordinary courage and resilience that they have shown in surviving the torture, rape, beatings, imprisonment and bereavement often cannot be sustained when their hopes for sanctuary in the UK have been shattered. We have seen that the fear of being returned to the self-same danger from which they fled in the first place result in suicide and self-harm.
Accessing health care is becoming increasingly more problematic with some front line staff in the Primary Care Trust confused regarding patients' entitlement. The government's decision to lump together unsuccessful asylum seekers with so-called 'health tourists' is deeply offensive. We are concerned that increasing numbers of clients are unable to access the treatment they need. WERS established its own counselling service 2 years ago as a response to a growing need for such a service for depressed and traumatised clients.
If clients whose cases have failed were able to stay in their accommodation until such time as removal to the home country was possible, we suspect that many of the health problems, both physical and mental, would be considerably lessened.
Clients would not be forced into prostitution to get a bed for the night, risking pregnancy or health problems. They would not be at risk of being lured into illegal working or facing further exploitation by going underground.
Immigration would know where people were living and so from the Home Office point of view removal would be more straightforward. Perhaps most important of all asylum seekers would be allowed to retain some dignity. The way in which asylum seekers, whose cases have been refused, are treated is nothing short of a disgrace. I cannot help but think that were any other section of society treated in this inhuman way there would be universal outcry and condemnation of the system that causes such treatment of our fellow human beings.”
We in Ponteland URC continue to offer support in the form of food, toiletries and clothing. Frank and Marion Thomson (01661-823191) are happy to take items to the centre.
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