Is there a 'Humanitarian Crisis' at Croyden!

The predicted humanitarian catastrophe as a result of the introduction earlier this week of punitive new asylum rules that remove all state support from those deemed to be "in-country applicants" appears to be coming all too true, all too soon, if the alarming events now taking place at Lunar House Croydon, over the last four day are anything to go by.

On Monday 6th January 2003, at Croydon there were 1000+ people queuing for screening. Five people collapsed and were admitted to hospital suffering from hypothermia.

On Tuesday 7th January 2003, Lunar House, laid on coaches to be used as shelter from the cold, engines running, heating on. Not one asylum seeker got on the coaches. Apparently they stood beside the buses, breathing in deisel fumes, too scared to get on in case they were whisked off to somewhere worse than the freezing streets

Lunar House, is now staying open till 12.00 midnight to try and process claims.

Asylum seeker families, old people, pregnant women and children, are all forced to queue in the freezing cold for hours on end waiting for their appointments and are literally on the verge of freezing to death. Some desperate claimants are now being reduced to sleeping outside overnight in order to gain admission into Lunar House the next day. A soup kitchen has been set up by volunteers to provide some meagre sustenance for these unfortunate people.

Delays are building up due to new procedures with interviews, case workers now have to question claimants on when and how they got to the UK, to comply with section 55 of NIAA, this means that interviews are extended well beyond what was the norm. Staff at Lunar House are not getting home till the small hours of the morning.

People who have visited the queues outside Lunar House, say the visible distress of the asylum seekers is heartbreaking.