Up to 45,000 failed asylum seekers given right to work in BritainBy Jack Doyle

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1298431/Up-45-000-failed-asylum-seekers-given-right-work-Britain.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Up to 45,000 failed asylum seekers given right to work in BritainBy Jack Doyle
Last updated at 5:26 PM on 28th July 2010

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Short term: Immigration Minister Damian Green said he wants to speed things up so failed asylum seekers who refuse to return home voluntarily can be sent home before they qualify
Tens of thousands of failed asylum seekers have been granted the right to work in the UK in a landmark court ruling.
It affects around 45,000 asylum seekers whose applications have already been rejected at least once but have not been deported.
Home Office officials argued that an EU directive should not apply to them because it would encourage bogus applicants to abuse the system by making repeated claims.
But the Supreme Court ruled that failed asylum seekers whose cases had not been dealt with after 12 months must be given access to jobs.
Many of those affected are part of Labour's giant backlog of 450,000 asylum claims - which are still being processed by officials.
Sir Andrew Green, chairman of the MigrationWatch think-tank said: 'There seems to have been a succession of court decisions which take no account of the real world in which our Home Office has to operate.
'It is no service to genuine refugees to make the asylum system progressively more open to abuse.
'Yet again directives drawn up by the EU have unintended and unwelcome consequences for Britain.'
Reacting to the judgment, Tory ministers said they were considering restricting access to industries in which there is already a proven shortage of workers.
Immigration Minister Damian Green said: 'This judgment will only have a short-term effect. The long delays in the asylum system will be resolved by the summer of next year when all the older asylum cases are concluded.
'I believe it is important to maintain a distinction between economic migration and asylum - giving failed asylum seekers access to the labour market undermines this principle.





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'I am already committed to reviewing the asylum process to make it more cost effective and quicker. In the future I want to be able to remove failed asylum seekers who refuse to return home voluntarily well before they can qualify to work.'
The case was brought by two asylum seekers. One, a Somali national known only as ZO, came to the UK in 2003.
Her asylum claim was rejected in February 2004 and all appeals against the ruling had failed by the end of that year.
But in March 2005 she made a new claim for asylum and in June 2007 she asked for the right to work in the UK. Delays in processing her case mean it is still being considered.
The second, from Burma, who is known as MM, first applied for asylum in 2004 and was refused by March 2005. Two months later he made a new claim which has also never been resolved.
Asylum seekers making their first application are entitled to work if their cases have not been dealt with after 12 months.
But Home Office officials had ruled that it would be wrong to allow failed asylum seekers access to jobs after their initial claims for refugee status had been dismissed.
Fresh applications are sometimes made in which asylum seekers argue new threats have emerged since their cases were first rejected, and they are now at risk of persecution if they return home.
The Home Office told the court that extending EU directive 2003/9/EC - which was drawn up as a step towards the creation of a Europe-wide asylum policy - would 'greatly increase' the potential for abuse.
Lawyers argued it would encourage applicants to bring 'wholly unmeritorious claims with the aim of delaying their removal'.
But judges said the directive should be applied until a final decision has been made on each individual case.
In his ruling, deputy president of the court Lord Kerr wrote: 'It would be, in my view, anomalous and untoward that an applicant who makes a subsequent application after his first application has been finally disposed of should be denied access to standards that are no more than the minimum to permit him to live with some measure of dignity.'
Asylum seekers whose claims have been rejected are not entitled to benefits unless they have children. Nor are they allowed access to free healthcare except in emergencies.
The ruling was welcomed by refugee charities. Jonathan Ellis, director of policy at the Refugee Council said: 'The vast majority of asylum seekers who come to the UK would rather support themselves through work than be forced to be homeless or to rely on Government support.
'Denying asylum seekers the chance to work means they cannot contribute to the UK economy and condemns asylum seekers and their families to abject poverty.'


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