Pointless and Dangerous’: Asylum Seekers Forced to Sign on Again With Home Office

Asylum seekers and other migrants are being told to report to the Home Office in person again following a suspension of the measures during lockdown, prompting fears that vulnerable people are being placed at risk as coronavirus cases rise across the country. People who are awaiting a decision on their application to remain in the UK – including modern slavery victims and torture survivors – are required to regularly sign on at their local reporting location. This requirement was temporarily suspended in March because of the pandemic, but over the last two months the Home Office has been sending texts to people stating that they must start reporting in person again “due to the easing of Covid lockdown measures”.

Campaigners said the decision was placing some vulnerable and disabled people at risk, and that doing so at a time when coronavirus infections were rising suggested that the government was placing “more importance on looking tough on immigration than keeping people safe”. A Home Office spokesperson said those who had been told they must start reporting again mainly comprised a “small number of vulnerable people for whom reporting is beneficial”, as well as foreign national offenders and recent small-boat arrivals. However, lawyers said people who had been formally identified as modern slavery victims were among those being asked to report in person, as well as asylum seekers who were not receiving any financial support to enable them to pay to get to the reporting centres.

Read more: May Bulman, Independent, https://is.gd/01GhTM