Our support services @refugeeaction for people seeking asylum have now done 4 weeks remote working, supporting vulnerable people through phone / email / what’s app. Our conclusions so far? 1/11
Navigating the asylum system in normal times is fraught with risks, it damages, dehumanises and disempowers the people going through it, but trying to do this in the midst of Covid lockdown is terrible in so many additional ways 2/11
What are we seeing in addition to the usual challenges people have to face? For those with support, £37 a week is now even harder to feed themselves / family, as value items in shops in shorter supply, v v difficult choices re expenditure 3/11
For those homeless and destitute, informal support networks have broken down, sofa-surfing makes social distancing even harder, dependent more than ever on emergency food provision, but much harder for charities to get food / money to them now 4/11
The scandal of shared rooms in initial accommodation, living / sleeping inches away from strangers, with no possible chance to social distance, and many with health vulnerabilities 5/11
But for many others not sharing rooms but in shared houses, the rising levels of stress and anxiety living in shared spaces, in fact being in a lockdown household with people they don’t know and who they worry may not be respecting the Covid guidelines 6/11
All this creates levels of worry and trauma that sits on top of all the existing trauma of fleeing their home country, making the often deadly journey to safety and all the challenges of navigating the asylum system 7/11
People seeking asylum are telling us that their existing feelings of isolation are now a hundred times worse, the mental health impact is significant and access to vital prescriptions for existing health conditions is so much more difficult 8/11
And lockdown has shone a huge light on the levels of digital exclusion amongst people seeking asylum: limited internet connectivity, no or limited access to devices, often no wifi, struggling to top-up data…. 9/11
…Yet now totally dependent on being constantly online for vital info, for essential connections with friends / family / support services, for destitution payments, for children’s home schooling activities etc 10/11
Our brilliant Asylum Services staff and volunteers will head into week 5 of remote working tomorrow grappling with these challenges, trying to help the people we are supporting to find solutions and continuing to shine a light on their experiences 11/11
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