Asylum news: Home Office announces three month delay on evictions from asylum accommodation

Posted onMarch 30, 2020

As London immigration solicitors working remotely and online in a global coronavirus pandemic it has been hard to find positive news about Immigration law but the Home Office announcement about a delay in asylum accommodation evictions is a bit of positive news.

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Home Office Asylum accommodation announcement

The Home Office has stated that it will put a hold on evicting asylum seekers during the Covid 19 lockdown. The cessation of evictions will last for three months and means that the Home Office won't evict you from government accommodation for the next three months if you are an asylum seeker.

Home Office minister, Chris Philp, has said in writing to the Red Cross that Asylum seekers won't be asked to leave their Asylum accommodation once their asylum claim or asylum appeal has been decided. The news will come as a tremendous relief to Asylum seekers, many of whom could not leave the UK even if they wanted to because of travel and border restrictions.

How long will the Asylum accommodation measures last for?

The Home Office has said that the new policy of not evicting asylum seekers from government accommodation will be reviewed in June 2020. Immigration solicitors anticipate that there will be tremendous pressure to extend the measure if the coronavirus outbreak has not been completely beaten by then. After all, it would make no sense for the UK population to remain under lockdown measures to prevent the spread of Covid 19, only for asylum seeker evictions to resume as Asylum seekers are some of the most vulnerable people in UK society.

In his letter to the Red Cross, the Home Office minister said: “The practical outcome is that those who would ordinarily have their support stopped because their Asylum claim or appeal has been rejected, will remain accommodated.”

However, the Home Office announcement does go further than that as it also helps Asylum seekers who have had a successful asylum claim. Normally, if an Asylum claim is successful, the Asylum seeker is expected to move out of their government provided accommodation and sort out their own property, and that often involves finding somewhere to rent. That isn’t always an easy task because of the right to rent laws as well as having the funds or benefits to rent. The government has acknowledged that this action isn’t just designed to help Asylum seekers but the overstretched local authorities who normally have to assist with providing accommodation for successful Asylum seekers until they can get jobs and become independent.

The British Red Cross has estimated that the Home Office announcement will help about 50,000 people. That is a considerable number of asylum seekers so is welcome news as whilst they may remain extremely anxious about the Covid 19 outbreak at least they know that the government won't be taking any steps to ask or force them to leave their government provided accommodation until June.

The Home Office announcement in full

In his letter, dated the 27 March 2020, to the British Red Cross, Chris Philp , member of parliament and in his official capacity as the "Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Immigration Compliance and the courts", wrote:

" I am writing to you in your role as the single point of contact for the Non-Government Organisation sector on Asylum matters related to Covid-19. I am very grateful to you for stepping into this role, which is supporting us in communicating as effectively as possible at this difficult time.

As you know, we are currently facing an unprecedented global health emergency.

This crisis has had a significant impact on the Asylum system, particularly in ensuring we have enough accommodation to meet the current needs of Asylum seekers who require housing, as well as safeguarding the people we care for and the communities in which they live.

The Prime Minister was clear on Monday 23 March that we must do all we can to ensure that people remain in their homes and do not travel or move around unnecessarily, adding additional measures to support that. To that end, I have taken the decision that, for the next three months, we will not be requiring people to leave our accommodation because their Asylum claim or appeal has been finally decided (as would normally be the case). This decision will be reviewed ahead of the end of June 2020.

The practical outcome is that those who would ordinarily have their support stopped because their Asylum claim or appeal has been rejected, will remain accommodated. All those who would ordinarily be required to make their own support arrangements because they have been granted refugee status and can therefore access mainstream services, including local authority housing assistance, will similarly be able to remain in their current accommodation. I expect this decision to considerably relieve pressures on local authorities.

My decision is likely to mean that the supported Asylum population will grow, as new Asylum seekers enter the system and require housing. In order to meet that growth, my officials have asked our accommodation providers to source additional capacity across the United Kingdom. It is likely that this additional capacity will be in the form of sole-use, self-contained facilities.

I am sure you will appreciate the huge amount of work involved in putting these measures in place. We continue to prioritise the safety of our Service Users and the communities they live in, but we may need to change the way we normally would work further and make some difficult decisions at very short notice. We would ask that you support us in that. In particular, I hope you will appreciate that some hard choices have to be made and that we will not always be able to accommodate new Asylum seekers entering the system in the areas that might in other circumstances best fit their needs. In particular, it is unlikely that we will be able to accommodate these cases in London or some of our other large cities. Similarly, we are unlikely to be able to agree to relocation requests from those already being accommodated. I would hope that the NGO sector recognises these factors and can help us to manage expectations.

Rest assured that we remain committed to working in partnership with Local Authorities and NGOs, through the use of Strategic Migration Partnerships and Voluntary Sector network, to ensure the views of Local Authorities are included when forward planning."

Asylum claims – do I need to act?

If you need help with an asylum seekers claim then now is a good time to act as immigration solicitors can help you with your Asylum claim remotely with video conferencing, Skype or telephone appointments.

Online Immigration solicitors

If you need Asylum or personal immigration law then the specialist Immigration lawyers at OTS Solicitors are here to help. Call us on 0203 959 9123 or complete our online enquiry form to arrange a video conference, Skype or telephone appointment.

COVID-19 update: