“I will probably sleep outside this centre. It’s the only place I know,” said Ahmad*, a 22-year-old Afghan refugee who is likely to be living on the streets in the coming days.
After the joy of being granted the right to remain in the UK, Ahmad was shocked to discover he would have just 10 days to quit his Home Office accommodation and find somewhere new to live before beginning to rebuild his life.
He is one of more than 100 refugees being supported by Open Door North East in Middlesbrough. “We can’t tell our clients ‘everything is going to be OK’ any more because it won’t be,” said Anna Lewis, the chief executive of the charity. “We’ve had refugees who have been homeless for months and months. It’s soul-destroying.”
Open Door North East is on the frontline of the UK’s latest homelessness crisis – refugees falling en masse into rough sleeping. In August, as part of an attempt to tackle the ever growing asylum backlog, the government slashed the number of days before notice is given to those granted refugee status to leave their accommodation, from 28 to about seven.
In the months since, councils across the country have reported record numbers of refugees seeking help for homelessness. The Red Cross warned it could result in 50,000 refugees in the UK being made homeless by the end of the year.
The Guardian visited a drop-in session at Open Door North East earlier this week. The charity’s centre was packed with people granted refugee status seeking help for homelessness. Some had been sleeping rough for weeks. One Kuwaiti refugee had slept on and off between a car and a bus shelter for more than a month before moving in with a friend.
The charity’s stockpile of tents and sleeping bags is almost depleted. Every day, evicted refugees turn up outside the charity’s office with suitcases and nowhere to go. Lewis said there had been a four-fold increase in the number of refugees seeking help for homelessness from the charity since August.
Open Door North East has its own bed space. In the past, this would have been reserved for asylum seekers whose applications had been refused or those who were locked out of support. Now, refugees who have the legal right to work and sign a tenancy agreement are being placed there. “We’re having to make really difficult decisions about who is more in need,” Lewis said.
“Refugees have faced so much in their home countries, made perilous journeys to the UK and waited years in the asylum system and then suddenly you have seven days to move. The joy turns to horror so quickly,” she said.
This year, the Guardian and Observer charity appeal is supporting three refugee charities: the No Accommodation Network (Naccom), the Refugee Councils of Britain and Refugees at Home. Open Door North East is a memberof Naccom, which will regrant its share of appeal donations to its network of grassroots local projects.
The Home Office insists the formal “move-on” period of 28 days has not changed. Previously, this period began when refugees received their biometric resident permit card, which is needed to open a bank account, apply for work or sign a tenancy agreement. Now the period begins when they are told their case has been approved. The card usually arrives weeks later which means, in practice, newly recognised refugees have about seven days to find somewhere to live.
Tamsin Baxter, the executive director of external affairs at the Refugee Council, said: “We’ve seen a sharp rise in the number of newly recognised refugees turning to our services because of homelessness and destitution, which is particularly concerning during the colder winter months.
“Refugees are being faced with the misery of eviction notices and finding themselves cut off from all support almost overnight. We have been raising this with the government and in parliament calling for an increase in the move-on period for new refugees to at least 56 days.”
The unprecedented rise in refugee homelessness is happening across the country. Liverpool city council said it expected more than 1,000 asylum seekers in the area to receive decisions from the Home Office by Christmas, and it fears hundreds could end up homeless. In London, 846 refugees and asylum seekers presented to councils as homeless in October, up by 39% from September. In Glasgow, the number of homeless refugees has doubled in recent months.
The majority of refugees being made homeless are single people with no children or disabilities. Local authorities – themselves under enormous financial strain – have no legal duty to house them.
Saeed, 26, was given two hours to vacate his Home Office accommodation in London last month. After gathering his belongings, which he gave to a friend, he wandered the streets before settling in Paddington station.
“It was freezing cold, it was the worst experience on my life,” he said. Surviving on biscuits and filter coffee, he slept there for four days. Saeed said that while he was homeless he was severely depressed and made several attempts to harm himself.
While in the station, he contacted Refugees at Home and was placed with a host in west London two days later. He has been living there since. “It was amazing. I told my host: ‘Finally, a warm house’. I slept for about two days,” he said.
Saeed arrived in the UK after flying in direct from Yemen in 2021. He waited more than two years for his asylum claim to be processed. In that time he received offers to study medicine at three universities, which he could not accept because he was ineligible for government student finance.
“I want to give back to this country. I’m grateful for what it has given me but the asylum system is broken.”
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