The UK is turning away asylum seekers with disabilities

More than 50 asylum seekers, most of them with disabilities, are there stored in a former care home in Essex, England, without access to appropriate support and services.

The Great Britain in November 2022, the government opened a center that can accommodate up to 77 people. Most of the people there, between the ages of 20 and 74, have physical and sensory disabilities. Many require assistive devices, including wheelchairs and crutches, medical assistance, or support with activities of daily living such as getting around or going outside. They fled from countries like Afghanistan and Sudan.

Action by refugees, asylum seekers and migrants (RAMA), a local organization that works with refugees and asylum seekers, supports residents, including by providing assistive devices and clothing.

“The only difference with the others an asylum seeker The temporary arrangement is that this place has equal access and accessible showers,” said Maria Wilby, RAMA’s chief operating officer. “When it opened, there were no lifts, no bedsore mattresses, nothing. Some people who come here don’t even have a change of clothes or underwear. We have to organize everything.”

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which the UK ratified in 2009, requires governments to ensure equal access to essential services such as health care, mental health services and psychosocial support. This includes supporting people with disabilities in situations of risk and humanitarian emergencies. Failure to do so is a form of discrimination.

However, asylum seekers with disabilities are often overlooked in the UK for basic services. In recent months there were reports asylum seekers with disabilities trapped in inaccessible temporary housing, sometimes unable to go to the bathroom or go outside for days at a time. This is part of a wider trend by the UK government turning away from the refugees and housing people in inadequate and inhumane settings.

“People with disabilities should be consulted and included in everything a refugee process, from seeking asylum to resettlement and integration, according to the motto of the movement of disabled people, “Nothing without us”, said Benafsha Yacoubian Afghan defender of the rights of the disabled.

The UK authorities must identify asylum seekers with disabilities and ensure that they are consulted and involved in decision-making about their needs and that they receive the support and services they are entitled to in accordance with the UK’s international commitments. People with disabilities should no longer be an afterthought.

Source: Human Rights Watch