The right to work

When they arrive in the UK, asylum seekers are not legally allowed to work. This is also the case in many other EU countries, but the jobs door stays shut tighter and longer here than elsewhere.

So how do they manage? Asylum seekers can apply for support payments while their claim is being considered. At present, these stand at about £5 a day for food, clothing, toiletries, transport and any other needs. The effect is that the vast majority of UK asylum seekers live well below the poverty line.

And this can go on a long time. In the UK, Home Office delays and backlogs are a fact of life – A total of 10,552 people were waiting for more than six months in the months from July to September 2017 — an increase of 27 per cent on the same period in 2016

If a UK asylum seeker’s claim remains undecided after a year, he or she can apply for work – but only for skilled jobs where there is an identified national shortage. Other EU countries allow asylum seekers to work after nine months’ waiting for a decision on their claim, and 12 of them grant permission to work after six months. Germany allows asylum seekers to work after three months.

Asylum seekers in other countries can also apply for a much wider range of work, including unskilled jobs. In Belgium, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Spain and Sweden, for example, they can work in any jobs.