In 2018, entrepreneur Miguel and his wife, a surgeon, fled threats of extortion and assassination in a lawless part of South America and came to the UK with their two children to claim asylum. They thought it would be a difficult 12-month process after which things would improve because they would be allowed to work. But six years later, they are still awaiting a Home Office decision on their case and have been denied the right to seek work in their fields. Their UK dream has become a nightmare.
Miguel, 41, said: “Because my wife is not the main asylum applicant, she has been unable to work at all since we arrived. For the first three years she suffered acute depression and did not want to get out of bed.” Miguel was allowed to apply for work after 12 months, but only in jobs on the Government’s highly restricted Shortage Occupation List (recently renamed as the Immigration Salary List), which was designed to address gaps in the UK labour market. Jobs include “social care worker” or niche specialities such as civic engineer, choreographer, violinist or ballerina.
“None of those are jobs I know how to do,” he said. “I ran a restaurant and an e-commerce business and I want to do something similar. When they take away your right to work, when they take away your ability to provide for your family, it emasculates you, it breaks you.” Tears streaked down Miguel’s cheeks. “We live in a hotel mainly for asylum seekers and at breakfast you get either a bowl of cereal or a boiled egg. One day my nine-year-old daughter asked for a pastry instead, but they said, ‘No, you are asylum seekers, not paying guests’. My daughter asked me: ‘Why can’t we live like normal people?’ It kills me to see my children suffer. All I want is to seek work in my field and support my family. I don’t want to live on government benefits. Why is that too much to ask?”
The limits imposed by the Government on the right to work for people seeking asylum are causing deep distress and economic hardship, both for individuals and the country at large. The London Standard has interviewed many asylum seekers caught in this limbo, some of them highly educated like Miguel — and Masoud, a doctor from Afghanistan, whose story is also told here. Our investigation can reveal that:
Economic benefits
That is why, as part of our Winter Appeal, A Place to Call Home — in support of refugees and people experiencing homelessness — The London Standard is calling on the new Labour government to review and change this policy.
We believe it should reduce the ban on work for asylum seekers and their adult dependents from the current 12 months to six months or less, unrestricted by the occupation list, bringing us in line at least with France, the U.S. and Spain. Germany and Italy are even more lenient and impose only a three-month and two-month work prohibition for asylum seekers.
The Lift the Ban coalition, a group of more than 250 refugee charities and organisations, petitioned the former government for this exact policy shift. Since 2018, it has raised more than 180,000 signatures, commissioned polls revealing 81 per cent of the public back lifting the ban, and presented economic analysis showing doing so would produce a £100 million net gain to the economy, because asylum seekers would be able to earn and pay tax and would no longer require subsistence and housing support.
If I had been allowed to work sooner, I wouldn’t have been a mental health burden on the NHS
Previous Conservative governments have resisted. Asked to comment on whether the policy would be reviewed, a Home Office spokesperson for the new Labour government said: “There is no intention to change the existing rules. Unrestricted access to employment could act as an incentive for more migrants to choose to come here illegally.”
Defenders of the status quo have typically cited the “pull factor”, arguing the ban makes the UK less attractive for would-be asylum seekers — but campaigners say there is no evidence economic rights influence destination choices at origin. Some Lift the Ban coalition members, such as the Refugee Council, one of the organisations we are funding as part of our Winter Appeal, had hoped Labour would be more open to change.
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “Every day we support people who worked as doctors, nurses and teachers before their lives were derailed by war and violence. Many are desperate to put their skills to use and contribute to their new communities, but the Government does not allow most refugees to work while awaiting a decision on their asylum application — which can take years.
“This means even highly qualified refugees can be left dependent on the state for long periods. For many refugees, work is how they rebuild their lives. For wider society, there is clear economic benefit. We call on the Government to allow asylum seekers the right to work after six months.”
Lifting the ban would also cut homelessness. Last week we revealed that refugees are among the fastest rising sub-group of the homeless, with local authorities in England reporting a 253 per cent rise over nine months in refugee households requiring homelessness support after being “moved on” from Home Office accommodation. Lifting the ban would mean asylum seekers could already be earning and therefore would not be reliant on local authorities to find them housing when their refugee status is finally granted.
The Migration Advisory Committee, an independent public body that advises the Government on migration issues, recently said: “We question the value of restricting work to roles on the Shortage Occupation List. This was never the purpose of the SOL, which is not suited to determining which jobs asylum seekers should work in. We recommend that, if granted the right to work, asylum seekers should be able to work in any job.”
Meanwhile, our fundraising appeal in partnership with Comic Relief to support charities helping refugees and people affected by homelessness has gathered pace with a £100,000 donation from the Barratt Foundation, taking the total amount raised to more than £1.1 million.
Andy Button-Stephens, head of the Barratt Foundation, said: “We are proud to back The London Standard’s campaign in partnership with Comic Relief. Our donation will help spread warmth to communities across the UK this winter — by funding food banks, local homeless shelters and temporary accommodation.”
In investigating asylum seekers’ right to work, The London Standard also spoke to Masoud, 51, a medical doctor who fled threats to his life and the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan three years ago, shortly before the Taliban took power. He said not being able to work when he arrived in the UK was “extremely tough”.
A lonely life
“I spent the first nine months trying to fill time by working on a PhD proposal, but when that fell through, I felt empty,” he said. “Work is how you integrate into a new country. Once you stop working for a long time, it affects your confidence and you have to explain to employers why you didn’t work and that leads to more questions about your lack of UK experience.” Masoud, who was not resettled under a government scheme, gained refugee status after 18 months and waited a further nine months for his wife and children to be granted leave to join him. He took several conversion exams, including the Occupational English test, a language proficiency test for healthcare professionals, but when he failed one, his mental health plummeted. “I was living alone in a hotel room with no job to keep me busy and no family and I got so lonely,” he said. “I would study 10 hours a day to pass, often going to read in the park, just to be near people.”
Masoud sought mental health support from the NHS and also help from the Refugee Council, which has a Building Bridges Programme to retrain refugee health professionals to work in the NHS. Today, having completed all conversion exams, he is eagerly looking for a clinical attachment with a London hospital.
It kills me to see my children suffer. All I want is to work in my field and support my family. I don’t want to live on benefits
“Now it is time for me to find a job,” he said. “If I had been allowed to work sooner, I would have been able to practise my profession, talk to patients and understand the culture. I wouldn’t have been a mental health burden on the NHS. My hotel was full of asylum seekers with mental health problems because of the hard situation they faced being unable to work. It’s such a shame, such a waste of resources.”
Unlike Masoud, Miguel cannot yet see light at the end of the tunnel. Asked when he expects a final decision on his status, he shrugged sadly and said: “How long is a piece of string? The system is inhumane. In our asylum hotel, we are one family among many who are not allowed to work or own a fridge or cook for ourselves. I bought an air fryer but they confiscated it.”
Miguel compares his situation to that of his brother, who sought asylum in the U.S. “My brother’s application was processed in a reasonable time and he was allowed to work in his field after six months,” he said. “Unlike me he feels welcome. Unlike me he has been able restart his life.”
Miguel and Masoud’s names have been changed.
How you can help
£10 could provide a young person travel to meet a wellbeing mentor and have a hot meal
£50 could provide travel to work or school for a month for an at-risk youth
£150 could refurbish a bike for an adult refugee giving them freedom to travel independently
£500 could train ten people with experience of homelessness to become homeless health advocates £1,000 could enable one of our partners to fully support a young person throughout the year
To make a donation visit: comicrelief.com/winter
In a Nutshell
Our Winter Appeal, A Place to Call Home, in partnership with Comic Relief, is seeking to help fund organisations in London and across the country that support asylum seekers and people experiencing homelessness.
Our Winter Appeal, A Place to Call Home, in partnership with Comic Relief, is seeking to help fund organisations in London and across the country that support asylum seekers and people experiencing homelessness.
