Immigration Solicitors

The rights of asylum seekers concerning working in the UK have changed recently because of an EU directive, which was unsuccessfully challenged by the UK Government in the Supreme Court. The directive lets asylum seekers in the UK search for work as long as their claim for asylum has not been processed in the space of a year. The Government took the view that this directive did not apply to asylum seekers who had already submitted an application that had been rejected, and were submitting a second one, but the Supreme Court ruled against this.

Asylum seekers, when submitting their first claim for asylum, are not allowed to work in the UK. However, if the initial claim for asylum has still not been processed after a year has passed since its first submission then the asylum seekers are allowed to work here. This is because the UK signed up to the European Council’s Reception Directive in 2003, which allows this to happen. In 2010, judges in the Supreme Court ruled that the same situation applies not only to new asylum seekers but to those submitting a second claim after the first one has been rejected.

Fresh asylum claims, following an initial rejected one, are based usually on new evidence such as a change in personal circumstances or the conditions in the country that they have left. Following rejection of the second claim for asylum, their right to work in the UK will also end and they will have to return to their country of origin.

The asylum seekers who are eligible to work in the UK are often restricted to certain types of jobs. The Government has drawn up a shortage occupation list and asylum seekers are often restricted to jobs on that list.

When asylum seekers have come to the end of the appeals process, they are prohibited from working for payment, and this is the case even when the Home Office has accepted reasons given for being unable to exit the UK, such as the incapacity to return to their own country by a safe route. An asylum seeker in this temporary state in the UK will receive accommodation and a number of vouchers to cover basic needs and food while remaining in the UK.

One of the reasons that the government is averse to allowing asylum seekers to undertake paid employment, and consistently challenges EU directives such as the Reception Directive of 2003, is that it sees such rights as a ‘pull factor’ that would encourage more people across the world to head for the UK and claim asylum here.

Many asylum seekers are highly skilled, and the new changes to the law mean that they can contribute to this country and support themselves to some extent in certain types of job if their first or second claims for asylum are taking longer to process than expected.

Duncan Lewis and other immigration solicitors will be pleased to offer help and advice with asylum issues.