Government is exploiting weak asylum-seekers, says Archbishop of York


Ruth Gledhill and Richard Ford, The Times, December 24, 2009
http://tinyurl. com/yaj8gtn

The Archbishop of York has criticised policy on asylum-seekers, warning that cuts in financial support will leave many of them destitute this Christmas.

In an article in today's Times, John Sentamu accuses the Government of exploiting the weak by making it more difficult for asylum-seekers to make a repeat claim to stay in Britain.

He also condemns the reduction in benefits given to single asylum-seekers to £5 a day. He said that this "meagre" sum was the same amount he received when he arrived in Britain in 1974 after fleeing from Idi Amin's Uganda.

The Government reduced the benefit for single asylum-seekers over 25 from £42.16 a week to £35.15 in October, bringing it in line with the amount given to under-25s. The allowance will be credited to a card rather than given in cash, restricting where and when it can be spent.

"It won't be possible to carry money over from one week to the next, or even buy clothes in charity shops," Dr Sentamu said. "These new arrangements will make it even more difficult for people already struggling to find enough to pay for food and other essentials. There must be a better way."

New rules mean that people who claimed asylum before March 2007 and have been refused can no longer make second asylum applications by post. They must apply in person in Liverpool or at reporting centres. The Government says that the intention is to deter people from making repeated claims, but Dr Sentamu said that it imposed an unnecessary burden on some people.

Phil Woolas, the Immigration Minister, said yesterday that asylum-seekers typically lived in UK Border Agency accommodation and so had no housing costs or water, gas or electricity bills. "In view of the difficult economic climate, support rates were reviewed this year to ensure that essential living needs of asylum-seekers could be met within budgetary constraints, " he said.

Sir Andrew Green, of MigrationWatch, said: "The Archbishop is surely right to call for compassion and there may be areas where this is needed, but the queues of asylum-seekers at Calais suggest that we are already regarded as a favoured destination. "

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No room at the inn? We can still be hospitable

The innkeeper did his best to house Mary and Joseph. Let's show the same compassion to their modern-day counterparts


John Sentamu, The Times, December 24, 2009
http://tinyurl. com/JohnSentamu

There is a grace said in Yorkshire after dinner that could well be spoken in homes up and down the land this Christmas:

"Thank you Lord for what we've had/ It could ha' been better, but times is bad."

We are in a time of recession, and for many homes in Britain this means hard times now and hard times to come. There is one group of vulnerable people who possibly do not get as much sympathetic coverage as others, and I hope that, with me, you will spare a thought for them this Christmas.

Asylum seekers who find themselves destitute and struggling to survive with little or no means of support are our society's "living ghosts".
                                          
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