THE experience of a refugee living in the UK has highlighted issues with the Home Office’s planned changes to immigration.
It comes as Refugee week, a UK-wide celebration of the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees, concludes today.
Adam, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, holds refugee status in the UK after coming from Syria.
Having refugee status in the UK currently means that people given this status have a five-year period to live and work before applying for permanent residency. However, Home Secretary Priti Patel’s plans to overhaul this system will grant some that status when asylum is accepted.
Adam lived in Glasgow with relatives before moving to the south of England for work where he has a stable job. Despite this, he still has to deal with the anxiety of being a refugee for years before gaining permanent residency.
Adam said: “I am a programmer and do earn good money and I thought about getting a mortgage to buy a house but it is very hard for a refugee to get a mortgage even with a good salary because we do not have permanent residency and could be returned to our home country. However unlikely that possibility actually is, there is still a worry.
“Despite paying taxes to the council, I was not able to vote in the most recent local elections because I hold refugee status. In many aspects living as a refugee is a real struggle.
“I live in insecurity every day – it’s dispiriting and disappointing. With the word ‘refugee’ on an identity card you do feel indirectly discriminated against and do not feel yourself to be equal to other migrants.”
Adam highlighted refugees struggle to secure university places as they are deemed to be here temporarily and face discrimination at airports and indirect discrimination in everyday life.
He added: “They are granting permanent residency for new refugees but do not seem to care about the current ones. This policy is discriminating to refugees who live here and have to deal with these insecurities.”
The Tory immigration plans have been heavily criticised by SNP immigration spokesperson Anne McLaughlin MP saying that the party wants a “humane migration and asylum system that works for Scotland based on fairness, dignity and respect”.
Francesca Sella, a solicitor with immigration lawyers McGlashan MacKay, told The National that it would not be possible for current refugees in the UK to be granted permanent residency retrospectively.
She said: “Under the new plan, which is very concerning for everyone who works in this field, the Government has expressed no intention to implement this provision retrospectively.”
She added that, if the Government chooses to implement changes, it would only apply to those who arrive afterwards, and went onto detail how the new plans are likely to cause more issues for people seeking to gain asylum in the UK.
Sella said: “The most concerning thing about the new plan is that the way people arrive in the UK would affect their application for asylum.
“The vast majority of refugees we deal with have arrived in the UK in a way that would be deemed to be unlawful. This is often by boat from France.
“Under the new plans, these people would be given a term of 30 months of leave to stay but would have substantially different rights such as having no access to public funds and not being eligible to apply for their family members to come over.
“The fact that most asylum seekers and refugees will be placed in this status of limbo indefinitely will put the system in a worse position than it is now.
“At the moment we are seeing delays of months for people to get a decision on their asylum claim and these new changes will make the situation much worse.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “As part of the New Plan for Immigration we will grant indefinite leave to remain to refugees resettled through safe and legal routes immediately upon their arrival to the UK, giving them stability to get on with rebuilding their lives.
“The UK has a proud record of providing protection to those who need it, resettling over 25,000 refugees in the past six years, more than any other European country, and this change is part of strengthening these safe and legal routes further.
"Combined with measures to discourage often very dangerous attempts to enter the UK clandestinely, this will break the business model of callous people smugglers and mean that no more lives are put at risk crossing the Channel in unseaworthy boats or concealed in the back of trucks.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here