Asylum seekers arriving in the United Kingdom could contribute 42.4 million pounds ($56 million) to the UK economy per year if the existing restrictive rules, banning them from working before waiting for at least 12 months, were relaxed, Lift the Ban Coalition, advocating for refugees' rights to work, said in its report released on Tuesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th October, 2018) Asylum seekers arriving in the United Kingdom could contribute 42.4 million Pounds ($56 million) to the UK economy per year if the existing restrictive rules, banning them from working before waiting for at least 12 months, were relaxed, Lift the Ban Coalition, advocating for refugees' rights to work, said in its report released on Tuesday.
The report stipulates that people seeking asylum in the United Kingdom cannot apply for a work before a decision is made on their asylum claim, which takes at least 12 months. In case they are finally permitted to work, they can apply only for the positions included in the UK government's Shortage Occupation List, and these are mostly high-skilled professions.
"There is strong public support for giving people seeking asylum the right to work - with 71% of a wide cross-section of the UK population agreeing that if people were allowed to work after waiting for six months for a decision on their asylum claim, this would help them to better integrate. And lifting the ban could also be beneficial to the UK economy, leading to a potential net gain for the Exchequer of 42.4 million," the report read.
According to the report, 94 percent of the 246 people with experience of the asylum seeking process surveyed told that they would like to work if they were permitted to do so. A total of 74 percent of the interviewees had at least secondary-level education.
Lift the Ban Coalition said in its report that relaxing the restrictive rules would boost asylum seekers' chances to integrate, enable them to "live in dignity," improve their mental health and benefit the UK economy not just due to the new workers' contribution, but also due to cutting costs related to asylum seekers' support.
According to the UK government, 26,350 asylum seekers have arrived in the country in 2017.
