Liberty has secured an emergency injunction securing basic food and shelter for four Iraqi Kurd asylum seekers who have been forced to sleep rough since they arrived in the UK. They had been denied shelter under the new Nationality, Immigration & Asylum Act.

All four had fled to the UK from Iraq. Saddam Hussein's regime is notorious for its human rights abuses, particularly against Kurds - witness Foreign Secretary Jack Straw's dossier of human rights abuses, published a few weeks ago. Yet on arrival in the UK, they have been forced instantly into destitution by the new Act's rule on asylum benefits, which came into force on 8th January 2003.

Arriving on the 9th and 10th of January, the four were all dropped, lost and disoriented, at unknown points in the UK by lorry drivers. All made their way to the Home Office IND in Croydon as quickly as they could to claim asylum - and got there and lodged their claims within 48 hours. But they were told that wasn't quick enough under the new law. They were denied any support from the National Asylum Support Service, and so were left to continue sleeping rough and, in some cases, being forced to scavenge for food from bins.

The ex parte injunction, granted by a duty judge late yesterday evening (Thursday) means they must now be given basic shelter and food until the application for a judicial review of the new law is heard (probably late next week). We hope that - if permission for a judicial review is granted -the case will be heard within a month. But that remains a long wait for the many people already being affected by this inhumane new law.

Mona Arshi, one of the Liberty lawyers taking the case, said this evening:
"We're already seeing hundreds of people denied shelter and food, and facing a desperate situation in the middle of winter. Many are having to sleep rough.

"This is an appalling way to treat people - and it's a shameful way for the Government to act. It's creating a terrible injustice for the sake of looking tough, to distract attention from the bureaucratic shambles and under-resourcing that is the real problem with our asylum system".

Liberty is bringing the case against this new rule on benefits - introduced as part of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 - in co-operation with refugee welfare agencies including the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), the Refugee Council and the Migrant Helpline. We argue that the new system breaches Article 3 of the Human Rights Convention - the bar on cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.