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Benefits: UK against the grain

01 May 1996

An EU proposal for minimum conditions for asylum-seekers has been met with caution by the Home Office. The proposal would commit member states to adopt social, health, educational and cultural measures "to ensure that the immediate human, social and cultural needs" of asylum-seekers are met and to preserve their personal dignity. Such measures could cover the provision of board and lodging, medical and psychiatric care, economic assistance, education and employment. In its accompanying memorandum, the Home Office notes that the proposal will have to take account of measures going through parliament to be acceptable. This response is somewhat understated, since the current policy of the Home Office, expressed in the Bill and the regulations, is to prevent asylum-seekers from obtaining any of the listed reception measures. Elsewhere, the Home Office notes its reservations about measures having the effect of "integrating asylum-seekers into the community before a decision is made on their application". "In the United Kingdom", it adds laconically, "the large majority of asylum applications are refused." The intention of the government is clearly to undermine or ignore the non-binding "joint action"; under the heading "Financial implications" the note reads, "Providing the government's concerns are met, there should be no cost implications arising from this proposal" - a response which would be impossible if the Home Office intended to make any of the provisions the document calls for. Presidency proposal for a joint action on the minimum conditions for the reception of asylum-seekers (9489/95) and explanatory note, 1.2.96.