Month: July 2010

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The objective of the DEVAS project was to investigate and analyse vulnerability in detained asylum seekers and
irregular migrants: both the way in which pre-existing vulnerable groups cope with detention, and the way in which detention can enable vulnerability in persons who do not otherwise possess officially recognised vulnerabilities and special needs.

In partnership with NGOs in 23 EU Member States, JRS-Europe oversaw the collection of 685 one-on-one interviews with detainees. The size and scope of the sample reveals that, despite the diversity of personal circumstances of the detainees, detention does have a common negative effect upon the persons who experience it. In addition to detainees, project partners interviewed detention centre staff and other NGOs operating within the centres, and conducted a survey of asylum and immigration laws in their respective countries. This data is included within each of the 22 national reports that are published in the full DEVAS report.

This study builds on previous reports and projects that investigated vulnerability in detention. It analyses the situation of individuals and groups that possess officially recognised special needs, such as minors, young women with children, the elderly and persons with medical illness. But this study also analyses the situation of detainees who often go unnoticed: young single men, persons without stated physical and mental health needs, and persons in prolonged detention. Most importantly, this study pushes the discussion on vulnerability and detention one step further because its results are based exclusively on the voices of detainees. Thus the understanding of vulnerability that emerges from this study characterises the experiences of detainees as they told it themselves.

Full report here: JRS-Europe_BecomingVulnerableInDetention June 2010

Launched during Refugee Week, June 2010

Executive summary

Between 1 and 26 February 2010 six organisations (Refugee Action, British Red Cross, the ASSIST Surgery, LASS, the Leicestershire Congolese Mutual Group and the Welcome Project) from within the LVSF collaborated to conduct a snapshot survey of destitute asylum seekers and refugees seeking help and assistance from each of the projects.
• A total of 225 individual asylum seekers presented who were destitute at the time they were surveyed.
• 24 reported that they had slept rough the previous evening.
• 37 confirmed that they were ‘sofa surfing’ between friends’ houses on an ongoing basis.
• 131 had been technically destitute for more than a year.
• 145 did not have an HC2 at the point of survey.
• 48 had been destitute for a period of more than five years; the longest of which was 13 years.
• 96 became destitute as a result of their asylum applications being rejected (and any rights of appeal having been exhausted).
• Seven had become temporarily destitute because of delays in receiving housing and benefit support after receiving a positive decision on their asylum applications. Continue reading “Destitution in Leicester 2010”

END CHILD DETENTION NOW PRESS RELEASE 28 June 2010

LEADING charities and clergy and prominent figures including Colin Firth and Michael Morpurgo have greeted with rage and dismay news that Refugee & Migrant Justice has been allowed to collapse.

Refugee and Migrant Justice, formerly the Refugee Legal Centre, was the largest specialist national provider of legal representation to asylum seekers and other vulnerable migrants.

RMJ was awarded the Liberty/Justice Human Rights Award in 2005, in particular for its litigation work with Zimbabwean asylum seekers. Last week RMJ went into administration as a direct result of the government’s refusal to make legal aid payment until after cases are closed. Continue reading “RAGE AND DISMAY GREET RMJ COLLAPSE GOVERNMENT URGED TO REVIVE REFUGEE & MIGRANT JUSTICE”