Dear Home Secretary
As three local Labour Councillors for the Burngreave Ward on Sheffield City Council we are concerned about the plight of the many refugee and asylum seekers who have made their home in our community. At present though we are particularly concerned about the Iraqi Kurds who do not have ‘leave to remain’ and who have had letters informing them that they will, in the near future, be returned to Iraq. We are deeply perturbed about the return to Iraq, at the moment, of these Kurdish asylum seekers, as we believe the situation in Iraq is unsafe.
Although we understand there is a need to have a system to assess all those individuals who seek asylum in this country and, if those people do not gain refugee status that they will have to return to their country of origin. We feel that the withdrawal of accommodation and vouchers to those Iraqi asylum seekers who have signed the Section 4 forms, will only drive these unfortunate people underground into the ‘black economy’ and to earning money through illegal means.
Indeed, we have heard of incidences where Iraqi Kurds in our Ward are being paid just £1 an hour, working over 15 hours a day for unscrupulous people exploiting their need to have money to be able to buy food to live on. This is surely wrong.
We would ask you please to rethink this policy, and stop returning people to Iraq at this present time. Also please reconsider the withdrawal of accommodation and voucher rights and also consider the possibility of asylum seekers working whilst waiting to hear if they have ‘leave to remain’ granted. The majority of asylum seekers, from whatever background living in our community, don’t want handouts but want to work legitimately. They want to give something back to the country that has helped them at their time of desperate need.
Many thanks, we look forward to hearing your response.
Jackie Drayton, Steve Jones and Ibrar Hussain