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season of Goodwill towards Mankind?
The announcement on Tuesday 30th December 2003 by Health Minister John
Hutton that 'failed asylum seekers' will be refused free health care is
just the latest announcement in a long list of Home Office attacks on
asylum seekers.
The Home Office refuses asylum to many applicants, although it is known
that they cannot, for a variety of reasons, be returned to their country
of origin. For example, at present there are many hundreds of failed Zimbabwean
asylum seekers still in the UK, because the Home Office recognises it
is not safe to return them to Zimbabwe.
Many of these Zimbabweans and other nationalities who have lost their
asylum claims and cannot be removed from the UK are living rough. Liza
Schuster who spent Christmas week working at the Crisis Open Christmas
emergency shelter in London met people from Sudan, Somalia, Ivory Coast,
Ethiopia, Iraq and Iran, who had been directed to this large warehouse
on the Old Kent Road from Dover, Croydon or the Refugee Council in London.
Some of these people had reached the end of the process and had nowhere
else to turn. These included a 17 year old Somalian girl and a 19 year
old Iraqi. 'Their mental and physical health is failing because they are
living rough, sleeping in doorways with little or nothing to eat and terrified
of attack' said Schuster. Many are at present receiving or in need of
medical treatment, which if the Home Office has its way will cease from
April 2004.
The proposed new legislation comes after a three month public consultation
earlier this year, following growing concerns from the NHS about alleged
abuses of the system by overseas visitors.
Hutton Announces Crackdown On Health Cheats
These new rule changes will stop the following people from receiving free
treatment:
* Failed asylum seekers and others with no legal right to be in the country
- they will be stopped from receiving free treatment for conditions which
arise after their legal status has been finally determined. (full text
below).
http://www.info.doh.gov.uk/doh/intpress.nsf/page/2003-0533?OpenDocument
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