Asylum Seeker Support Initiative - Short-Term (Assist) is a Sheffield-based charity dedicated to helping destitute asylum seekers in the area. Coordinator Robert Spooner explains why the group was formed, and details some of their current work.
I work for Assist, Asylum Seeker Support Initiative - Short-Term, because we didn't think it was going to be long-term, but it obviously is now. Its been 5 years since the initial meeting which grew out of a conversation club, and the discovery of injustices happening to people being refused by the Home Office when they had very good reason for not going back home. This small group met, and within about 3 months we had got enough money to start helping those who are entirely destitute without money or anywhere to live and with reduced access to health services. So since that time we've been telling people - I myself am a local preacher in the Methodist church - as part of my preaching telling people what was really happening and people responded by giving us money.
In the first year we got something like £50,000 from groups and individuals which enabled us to start helping 4 people with £25 a week, and now 5 years later we're helping nearly 80 people with £20 a week and something like 25 in accommodation as well. The accommodation is a real struggle, because we've met women who've been sleeping in telephone boxes, men who've been walking all night and sleeping during the day. These are not people who've been on drugs or drink, these are people often who have been very well educated, because it is the educated people who are a threat to some of the rulers in the various parts of the world where they come from.
Nowadays if I am asked to speak, I will take an asylum seeker or two asylum seekers with me, so that they can tell their stories about the situation in the country from which they've fled, sometimes how they got here, but the most important thing for people to hear is how the system treats them. How they get very poor legal help because the government has restricted the amount of money available. When they first get a solicitor, they also have no idea whether this solicitor is any good, and there have been a number of solicitors who have taken the money and said "here's your papers back, sorry" and run off with the money, and there have been cases of court hearings where solicitors have failed to turn up, so individuals are completely unrepresented.
We do try to help people to find good solicitors to mount better appeals, fresh appeals, and help them to find new evidence if possible, but the rules that have been laid down about what is good evidence are so difficult for people to access, it's a case of presumed guilty rather than presumed innocent. No doubt there are people who come here because they want to better themselves. And what's wrong with that, but the majority of people who we deal with have had really horrendous experiences; social, ethnic, sexual, religious - all sorts of problems why they've had to flee.
This year we've recorded 200 people who have come to us fresh, and we've thought for a few years that there must be at least 1000 people who are destitute in the Sheffield area - this is working from government figures as well - which don't give you exact numbers because the government doesn't know either, but the indications are that there are 20-30 people on the street every night. Every Wednesday we have at least 120 people come to the conversation club, and associated with that we have our helpdesk which has an average of 16 people every week coming to ask for help, something like 3-4 each week of which are new people.
We have another group who are dedicated to investigating their cases in more detail, to do research to get fresh evidence, to try to help them get Section 4 ("hard case support") and make appeals etc.
We now have a volunteer development worker who is developing volunteering opportunities not only for English people, but for asylum seekers because emotionally they need something to do; most of them are very keen to work, but if they risk working they know they can be put in prison. We know of one lady with two teenage daughters who was put in prison for 3 months because she was found to be working. So there are some people who are risking their lives working, because if they get caught they are more likely to be deported back to a situation where they could well be killed.
In Sheffield now we have at least 6 conversation clubs, not only in the centre but around the city and these are a tremendous help for individual asylum seekers to have somewhere to go and have somebody to talk with and something to do.
Community response
As soon as somebody hears the story, most people react "oh, that's absolutely dreadful, here's some money" or "yes I want to come and help". We have had donations of £2 to £10,000 from individuals. People react. A lot of the help at the conversation club is from students, and they are very helpful in trying to help people with their English, as well as finding out about the world from their own point of view.
My wife and I have had over 20 people sleeping in our house, so we've learned a great deal, and also had a great help from a great range of people. It is not just one way at all, and we've had some very nice relationships with people.
The main thing is to allow people to work. As soon as that happens then the government gets more money. They don't have to spend money on section 4 to support people in accommodation, people feel better because they are working. The farmers in Lincolnshire are really struggling to get labour, people in Scotland are saying "we need immigrants" we're struggling to get enough people to man our health services. At the moment we have two qualified accountants working with us who are destitute asylum seekers, an IT specialist helping us with our computers, teachers who are volunteers in Assist, so we're trying as far as possible to make Assist an organisation not just run by white people but run by asylum seekers as well.
When you are refused as an asylum seeker and find that people do not believe your story, and find people tell you that your passport that you said was genuine is forged and that your ID which you say is correct is forged, just to say in any way that we don't believe you is such a dent on your confidence. People who have been entrepreneurs in their country, or prominent politicians find it very difficult to cope emotionally, and an awful lot of our clients get depressed and then its very difficult to help people.
