Sheffield organisations are renewing their calls to lift the ban on asylum seeker’s right to work, as they currently face a 12 month wait.
This comes after the latest immigration statistics show there are 11,490 people living on asylum support in Yorkshire and the Humber.
Aso Mohammadi, a journalist who has been given refugee protection by the UK Government said: “With these anti-immigration, discriminatory and cruel policies, including the ban on work, you have cut off the breath of our life.
“We cannot breathe. Please open the space.”
The Lift the Ban Coalition are asking for people seeking asylum to be given the right to work after six months, and for this to be unconstrained by the Shortage Occupation List.
These renewed calls follow Sheffield Council’s unanimously passed landmark motion on 5th July 2023 that re-affirmed Sheffield’s status as a City of Sanctuary.
Melinda Mo Martinez, Advocacy and System Change Coordinator at City of Sanctuary Sheffield said: “The city of sanctuary can’t just be a title, it needs to be a commitment.
“All of these people are human beings.
“Sheffield has a long tradition of fighting for the rights of those whose voices have been silenced, and this is an opportunity to continue that tradition.”
She said lifting the ban will allow more refugees to build a life and community in Sheffield because at the minute they are living in isolated hotels away from the city centre where it is harder practice English and integrate with local communities.
The council also committed to join the Lift the Ban Coalition made up of over 300 other businesses, recruiters, think tanks, trade unions, asylum charities and faith groups including City of Sanctuary Sheffield who hope pressure from Local Authorities to MPs will support national policy change to the UK’s immigration rules.
Currently, the UK’s immigration rules allow for people seeking asylum to request permission to work if they have been waiting for more than 12 months on their asylum claim “through no fault of your own“. Such as if the Home Office are delayed in giving someone a decision.
Right to Remain say almost everyone who is given the right to work under this policy is only allowed to work a job on the Shortage Occupation List, a list of jobs published by the Home Office showing the jobs that have a shortage of people working in them in the UK.
Members of the Coalition, Năm Sông cafe in Broomhill, Sheffield are working to raise awareness of the need to lift the ban.
Co-founder of Năm Sông, Jim Rose, 30, said: “It just doesn’t make sense.
“All they want to do is come here, make a life for themselves, make a life for their families and also help to contribute to society and they’re legally not allowed to.”
Mr Rose will be speaking at an event held by Lift the Ban campaigners to launch the local campaign to win the right to work for asylum seekers at Sheffield Town Hall on 15th December.
