The recently proposed Immigration and Asylum (Provision of Accommodation to Failed Asylum Seekers) Regulations 2005 require destitute individuals to work for free or face being made homeless by the Home Office. In a Dickensian move, the government’s latest attack on the most vulnerable within our community requires failed asylum seekers to perform community service if they are to be eligible for accommodation. Condemned by a joint parliamentary committee for presenting a ‘significant risk’ of breaking several fundamental human rights, the implementation of this Bill is likely to result only in human suffering and a hefty cost to the tax payer in defending legal challenges.

Regulations proposed under Section 10 of the Immigration and Asylum (Treatment of Claimants, etc) Act 2004 require those found to be destitute to take ‘all reasonable steps to leave the United Kingdom’[1] whilst also completing community activities to the satisfaction of the Secretary of State if they are to receive support. By requiring people who would otherwise be on the street to work in exchange for accommodation, the Government has invoked the ethical framework of the Victorian workhouse. The asylum seeker has become the modern version of the ‘undeserving poor’, denied access the opportunity to undertake paid employment yet required to perform activities at the behest of the Government.

As the workhouse is today considered morally repugnant it is unsurprising to find the Government’s plans condemned by Parliamentarians. The Joint Committee on Human Rights have found that the government is at ‘significant risk’ of subjecting failed asylum seekers to ‘forced or compulsory labour’ – that is, slavery – or ‘inhuman or degrading treatment’ – by withdrawing support and leaving people homeless.