It’s long past time to lift the ban on work for people seeking asylum – and this month, MPs were presented with fresh proof of why this illogical ban has to go.
Accompanied by campaigners from across the country with direct lived experience of being banned from work while claiming asylum, we visited Parliament alongside Lift The Ban co-secretariat Refugee Action, and coalition partners Women for Refugee Women, to share stories and evidence highlighting the dangerous impact of banning people from work.
MPs were presented with a new report, Time to Lift the Ban, which encourages policymakers to seize the opportunity of a new parliament and a new government to take a more rational approach to working rights.
The report dismantles the ‘pull factor’ myth about working rights that successive governments have used to refuse this common-sense policy change, showing that such rights play little or no role in destination choices of people seeking safety. It also describes the profound negative impacts on people seeking asylum – and wider UK society – of the current work ban. An it demonstrates that UK’s current ban, which prevents people from applying to work until they have been waiting 12 months for an asylum decision (and even then restricts them to the limited roles on the ISL), is out of step with restrictions in most other OECD countries, where six months, three months or even less is the norm.
