“Absolutely nothing has changed,” says Rashid, a young asylum seeker on his own in Britain who was among the people who met the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, when he visited the UK in November. “I am still living on £5 a day, struggling with travel, struggling with food, struggling with making friends. I thought that was going to be changed to something like £50 a day, but I am still hoping and waiting for change. I don’t know what I have to do.”
Rashid and other young people who are supported by the refugee and migrant charity Praxis spelled out to Alston in November how child migrants were driven to the very edges of society and obliged to survive on £37.50. Praxis provides support to migrants facing homelessness, destitution and deportation.
Their stories shocked the New York-based international human rights expert. When they read what Alston said in his interim report presented to government ministers, they were happy someone was listening. A few months later the level of despair and frustration they endure has, if anything, increased.
“Destitution is built into the asylum system,” Alston wrote after his 10-day investigation of extreme poverty in the UK. “Asylum seekers are banned from working and limited to a derisory level of support that guarantees they will live in poverty. The government promotes work as the solution to poverty, yet refuses to allow this particular group to work.”
Philip, another of the young people who met Alston, says: “We were led to believe he was an important person from an important organisation and that if he said something that the people in charge would change something. Until now nothing has changed.”
In the first nine months of 2018, 1,972 unaccompanied minors applied for asylum in the UK. Sudan, Eritrea and Vietnam were the most common countries of origin. Forty-five per cent of the decisions on applicants who had reached the age of 18 were refusals.
None of the young people who spoke to Alston wanted to give the Guardian their real names. Fear that the Home Office could make an arbitrary decision against them is prevalent.
Tears spring readily to the eyes of Mariam, a young woman who is alone in the UK and is appealing against her asylum decision. She has been waiting for months for certainty about what path her life will take.
“There is no way to solve the problem,” she says. “The officials don’t give you any steps to take. It’s all blank. All the support I get is from Praxis or the family I live with. Not from the government. It makes you really depressed. You can’t improve your life and do the things you want to do. For me that’s getting work. I would like to work in IT or admin, because I studied admin and computers.”
Rashid describes the reality of life on what Alston described as the “inadequate, poverty-level income” of £5 a day for close to six months, struggling to afford a meal, never mind essentials such as underwear or shampoo.
“I can’t travel anywhere,” he says. “I can’t make friends. I can’t be social. When someone invites me I just say no and find an excuse because I can’t afford travel. I think they understand, but they don’t make the change.”
Others were at least convinced Alston was paying attention. Rebecca Parkes, 12, from Glasgow, says what stood out for her was that he was “properly listening”.
“The experience reminded me of doing philosophy in class, when one person is speaking and you don’t have to put up your hand,” she says. “He let you say what you felt you needed to say.”
Three months on from Alston’s visit and his hard-hitting report, can she point to any changes? She is blunt but optimistic: “I’ve not seen much change in the areas that I stay around, but it’s probably because these are the starting months and political things take forever. But I’m hopeful that this will work.”
Parkes lives with her mother and three younger brothers in Calton, in the city’s east end, an area that has become synonymous over the years with low life expectancy and deprivation. How would she describe the place where she lives?
“Like in every area, it’s not perfect. You have people who make bad choices, but sometimes it’s their only choice. Overall it’s a pretty good area. We’ve got a community group that does free events for families and kids. People say ‘oh the outside’s dangerous, there’s needles everywhere,’ but it’s not true. You see kids outside all the time and we’re all pretty happy.”
How does she feel about media reports suggesting otherwise? “It makes me feel like they haven’t looked properly into it. If you look on the inside there’s nice people, there’s events, it’s very friendly.”
Did it surprise her that someone like Alston was making an effort to listen to young people? “I don’t meant to sound rude but I was kind of surprised. Politicians will say ‘we want to listen to young people’s views’ – there was once this thing where Nicola Sturgeon got asked questions from others kids – and that’s great, but it’s not really asking most of them. Politicians should ask more kids question because they are the future voters.
“I want politicians to interact with younger ones more,” she continues. “It doesn’t have to be a certain political party, but at least one of them came and actually interacted with us. I would feel that would make a really big change.”
This content was originally published here.