A new report carried out by a homeless charity claims that government policies are leaving newly recognised refugees homeless within days of them being granted asylum.
The research, carried out by the No Accommodation Network (NACCOM), suggests more than one in four homeless people using night shelters are refugees, with some going to shelters as early as one week after being evicted from asylum accommodation.
According to The Independent, the report also finds that 28 per cent of guests in a sample of night shelters had been granted refugee status. Although some of the shelters catered only for immigrants, the figure shows a large number of refugees are being affected.
The findings identify a direct link between the Home Office policy of giving newly recognised refugees only 28 days to vacate asylum accommodation – known as the “move-on” period – and the high prevalence of homelessness among refugees in the UK.
At one shelter in London, half of the refugees surveyed were known to have left their asylum accommodation within the previous six months.
The proportion of homeless people who are refugees is considerably higher than the overall proportion of refugees in Britain, with the number of people seeking asylum and recognised as refugees comprising less than 0.25 per cent of the total UK population, according to date from UN refugee body UNHCR.