The Court of Appeal's hearing on the section 55 Asylum Benefits case today saw an exceptional coalition of key organisations join together to support the expert evidence presented in court as an intervention by Liberty and the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants.
No less than 10 NGOs united to associate with this intervention, delivered by Rabinder Singh QC. Drawn from both the specialist refugee/asylum field and the homelesness sector, they were: Crisis, Shelter, the Child Poverty Action Group, the (separate) Refugee Councils for England, Scotland and Wales, Refugee Action, the Refugee Arrivals Project, Migrant Helpline, and the Immigration Advisory Service.
Rabinder Singh QC emphasised that the Liberty/JCWI intervention was not claiming that there was a generalised legal duty to provide social security to anyone and everyone. But the fact that the State has actively intervened by banning asylum-seekers from working, and thus effectively barring their route to supporting themselves, makes it "a different kind of case from the State simply never assuming responsibility".
He argued that the combination of degrading circumstances and positive government action to prevent people having other means of support was the key factor.
If someone has
... "not only no home, but no food, no money, no toilet facilities, no washing facilities. How long could someone be said to continue in that condition without any decent human being describing that as degrading? ... If the state has engaged in measures, and they lead to oncsequences that are degrading, then in the absence of any other means of support, that is degrading treatment".
"No accommodation, no food, no money, no toilet facilities, no washing facilities, taken in conjunction with the State's action, will constitute destitution".
BACKGROUND
The Government's appeal is over Section 55 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002. (Listed for 2.5 days, it has already overrun. It will finish tomorrow (Thursday lunchtime). In February, the High Court ruled that the decision to remove many asylum seekers' rights to housing, food and money tokens (if they are deemed to have made 'late' claims) breached the Human Rights Act.
Human rights organisation Liberty, in conjunction with JCWI, was granted permission to intervene in the Court of Appeal case. We have given both written and oral submissions.
In the High Court, Mr Justice Collins found the government's plan to make people destitute "removed the law of humanity" and was incompatible with our fundamental human right not to be subject to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment (Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights).
In response, he - and judges in general - were (once again) attacked by the Home Secretary.
Announcing the intervention, John Wadham, director of Liberty, said:
"In the High Court, Collins J ruled in favour of common sense and basic humanity - and was vitriolically attacked for so doing. As human rights campaigners, we've become well used to personal abuse from the Home Secretary, but it' s appalling that he should extend that to the independent judiciary. They are responsible for the rule of law in this country; they should not be pilloried by politicians for interpreting independently the welter of laws that Parliament has passed. Ministerial bullying of the judiciary via the national media is an unsavoury sight in a free democracy".
Mona Arshi, the Liberty lawyer leading this case, said:
"We're disappointed that the Government even believes itself justified in appealing against this decision. Politicians can argue about statistics all they like; but the cruelty of condemning people to hunger and homelessness in this way should be inconceivable in a civilised country like the UK.
"How it imagines that forcing more people on to the streets will solve the real problems in its bureaucratic asylum system is beyond rational comprehension".
The Master of the Rolls, Lord Phillips, is presiding, with Sedley LJ and Clark LJ. The Attorney General is appearing for the Home Secretary, with Nick Blake QC for the six asylum-seekers.
