Asylum seekers in UK should have right to work after six months, MPs say

Asylum seekers should be given the right to work after six months and granted greater access to public services, MPs have said in a cross-party report on the UK’s immigration system.

The report warns that by creating lengthy waits for asylum seekers and restricting their access to public services and social security payments, the government’s policies are pushing migrants in the UK into destitution.

It calls for a comprehensive refugee integration and support strategy and suggests that ministers should look at offering all UK residents free English language lessons, regardless of their immigration status.

Ruth Lister, a Labour peer and co-author of the report, said its findings showed “that all too often government policy is creating hidden poverty and destitution for people in the immigration system”.

Olivia Blake, a Labour MP and co-chair of the migration APPG, said: “It is widely acknowledged that the UK’s immigration system is broken, but our report shows that it appears to want to break the people within it as well.

Others involved in producing the report included the former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, the Conservative peer Nosheena Mobarik and the SNP’s David Linden, who chairs the APPG on poverty.