The Azure Payment Card - Greta Edwards (RAMFEL Trustee)

There are several thousands of individuals and families who have been refused asylum, but who are still given shelter and financial support by the UKBA (United Kingdom Border Agency), as because they are not allowed to work, they would otherwise be destitute. As a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights, the British Government must support such people, either until they are returned to their own country, or until a decision is made on any fresh application they have made.



However the UKBA does this in a way that that it hopes will

1. deter people from coming here to seek asylum;

2. persuade these people to go back voluntarily to their own countries.

The strategy it uses is to provide financial support only in the form of a card - an "azure payment card " - which is topped up automatically weekly with £35 per person, and can be used only in certain large chain stores, but which does not allow the recipients access to cash.

Living without cash is hugely frustrating, as it causes persistent problems. Here are some of them.

You or a family member become very ill out of surgery hours and the only source of advice is the hospital outpatients department: but you have no cash to travel there!

You urgently need to see your solicitor to discuss a letter the UKBA has sent you, because the letter gives you a dead-line to reply; but you have no cash to travel there!

The church, mosque, or gudwara you want to go to - because you are lonely and depressed and need the company of friends - is not in walking distance: but you have no cash to travel there!

The supermarket where you present your card has not seen it before and won't accept it, and your English is not good enough to know how to convince them. The nearest other supermarket you could try is a long way away: but you have no cash to travel there!

The washing machine has broken down - or there isn't one in the house - and you have to use a laundrette, or your children must wear dirty clothes and sleep in dirty sheets: but you have no cash for the machines!

These are just a few of the problems of living without cash. The UKBA say Section 4 support, as it is known, is meant to be only short term support, as refused asylum seekers are expected to go back. However, many have failed because they have not had legal representation - which is now less and less available - or because they are still trying to get vital documents which will prove their case, or because the judgement itself was flawed. In many cases there is very little likelihood of them being sent back because of the difficulty of obtaining travel documents for them, or because of political upheaval in their country.

As was said earlier, the UKBA hopes to deter people from seeking asylum here, and to persuade those still here to return. But this hope is merely what it is - just a hope - as there is no researched evidence that this is what actually happens. Moreover, most of the refugees concerned come from countries where the human rights abuses are so bad that they will bear any conditions here rather than risk what might happen to them if they return.

Please write to your M.P. and describe to him how difficult life is for asylum seekers who have no access to cash, and stress that there is no proof that a cash-less system of support deters people from coming or encourages them to leave. Ask him to pass your letter to Damien Green M.P. the Minister of State for Immigration, and to support your request to Mr. Green to propose the change in legislation needed to enable the provision of cash support to all refused asylum seekers until they are either given status or returned to their country of origin.