A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war or violence. In the UK, refugee status is given to anyone who can prove that they cannot return home, or are too afraid to do so. There must be well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.

An asylum seeker is a person who has left their country of origin and has formally applied for refugee status in another country. A decision has not yet been made on their application.

Refugee

✓ Has been granted leave to remain in the UK
✓ Can access State benefits
✓ Has the right to work

Asylum-seeker

✓ Is applying to be recognised as a refugee and be granted the right to remain in the UK
✓ Can access accommodation and limited subsistence from the State
✘ Does not normally have the right to work in the UK

We are asking the government to change legislation so that people seeking asylum are allowed to work once they’ve waited for six months after lodging their asylum claim. This would reduce the waiting time from 12 months, an objective that is in line with many other organisations and initiatives who are calling for the same law change.

According to a recent survey, 94 per cent of asylum seekers want to work, if they were given permission to do so.

Source: Lift The Ban Report (October 2018)

A skills audit carried out in May 2020 showed that:

*45% of respondents’ previous occupations were defined as critical workers

*1-in-7 respondents previously worked in Health or Social Care

*77% of respondents had already, or would like to, volunteer to help the NHS

*74% of respondents had secondary level education or higher

Source: Lift the Ban Skills Audit, May 2020

Yes! A recent poll of over 1000 businesses showed that:

*Two thirds (66%) of business leaders believe giving people seeking asylum the right to work would help ease the skills shortage

*The majority of business leaders agree that people seeking asylum could bring benefits to the workplace in terms of diversity of experience and skills

*More than two thirds (67%) of UK businesses agree that people seeking asylum should be allowed to work once they had waited six months for a decision on their asylum claim

* 2/3 (66%) of businesses would consider hiring those seeking asylum if the government were to grant them the right to work

*The majority of respondents (71%) agreed it would help with integration

Source: Polling by Survation on behalf of Refugee Action and Lift the Ban (published Aug 2019)

More people are joining the call for change. We know that 81 per cent of the general public support this change(1). Plus a growing number of cabinet ministers, MPs and other public figures who have stated that they are open-minded towards, or supportive of, a change in legislation. This includes Dominic Raab MP(2), Kwasi Kwarteng MP(3), Keir Starmer MP(4), Wendy Chamberlain MP(5), Jeremy Clarkson(6) (TV presenter), Fraser Nelson(7) (Spectator), Rachel Johnson(8) (LBC), Maajid Nawaz(9) (LBC) and more (10), (11)

[1] YouGov Polling, Lift the Ban, (March 2022)
[2] The Times article (10 Oct 2021)
[3] The Times article (10 Oct 2021)
[4] The Guardian article (30 Sept 2021)
[5] BBC Question Time (2 Dec 2021)
[6] The Sun Article (23 Jul 2021)
[7] The Spectator article (18 Sep 2021)
[8] LBC (10 Oct 2021)
[9] LBC (10 Oct 2021)

No. The law has changed, becoming more restrictive over the years.

Up until 2002, people seeking asylum could apply for permission to work if they had been waiting for six months or more for an initial decision on their asylum claim. In July 2002, this provision was withdrawn except in ‘exceptional cases’. No policy was developed to explain what these might be.

In February 2005, a new Immigration Rule was introduced to comply with the 2003 European Union Directive on Reception Conditions, which the Government had opted into. This rule allowed people seeking asylum to apply for permission to work in the UK if they had been waiting for over 12 months for an initial decision on their asylum claim.

In 2010, the right to work after 12 months was extended to those who have made further submissions on their claim; at the same time, however, the right to work was restricted to jobs on the Shortage Occupation List.

During the passage of what then became the 2016 Immigration Act, several amendments were put forward to give people seeking asylum the right to work. On 9 March 2016, during Report Stage of the Bill, the House of Lords passed an amendment by 280 votes to 195 which would grant people seeking asylum permission to work if a decision has not been taken on their asylum application within the Home Office target time of six months; the amendment was ultimately defeated in the House of Commons.

In December 2018 the Home Office announced it would undertake a review on the right to work policy but nothing has been shared of this process to date.

In September 2019 the Shortage Occupation List (SOL) was expanded following a review by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC). Nonetheless, the overwhelming majority of occupations remain outside of the SOL and therefore out of scope for people seeking asylum. Furthermore, the MAC questioned the usefulness of the SOL in general.

In Spring 2021 several occupations were added to the SOL, mainly in the health and care sector. Despite these additions, most jobs still remain inaccessible to asylum seekers due to the enforced waiting time of 12 months.

Sources: Lift the Ban, Common Sense Report (July 2020)
Smith Stone Walters, 8 New Health and Care Roles Added to the Shortage Occupation List (March 2021)
Smith Stone Walters, 8 New Health and Care Roles Added to the Shortage Occupation List (March 2021)

According to Lift the Ban, the UK’s approach to employment rights for people seeking asylum is significantly more restrictive than that of almost every other comparable country. No other nation, whether across Europe, or the USA, Australia and Canada, enforces a 12-month waiting period.

Many other countries, moreover, do not place restrictions on the type of employment somebody can take up – unlike in the UK, where the Shortage Occupation List makes it practically impossible for people to work, even after a 12-month wait.

As demonstrated in the Lift The Ban report, other countries have chosen to set a considerably shorter exclusionary interval, and some allow work from the very first day. If the UK were to adopt a 6-month waiting period, unrestricted by the Shortage Occupation List, it would go from being an outlier to joining the international mainstream.

Of course, even in countries with shorter waiting periods people seeking asylum continue to face a number of practical obstacles to accessing work. The most commonly cited hurdles are employer discrimination, language barriers and lack of recognition of existing qualifications. There are also some countries (such as Austria, France and the Netherlands) that restrict work either according to sectors or through limiting the numbers of days per year that people seeking asylum are permitted to work. In addition to simply giving people the right to work, therefore, it is key that conditions are put in place for this right to be realised in practice.

Length of time (in months) before people seeking asylum are given the right to work

Source: Lift the Ban, Common Sense Report (July 2020)

TLC will be running this campaign to mobilise business and employer voices until Spring 2022. During this time, we will look to engage and secure support from as many businesses as possible.