Why do asylum seekers come to Britain?

Destination Kent

Why do so many asylum seekers seem prepared to go to extraordinarily dangerous lengths to get from France to the UK?

There's no shortage of hair-raising tales about the extent asylum seekers will go to to cross the English Channel.

People cling to Lilos. They try to walk through the Channel Tunnel. They hang on the side of ferries. They have even held on to the axles of lorries.

But what are their reasons for going to such lengths to get here? What is so different about the UK from the rest of Europe?

First things first

There have been many misleading impressions of the number of asylum seekers trying to get into the UK.

It is true that there were a record number of applications for asylum in the UK in 2000, and that that was the highest number of any EU country.

Where do UK's asylum seekers come from?

Afghanistan

Somalia

Iraq

Sri Lanka

However, if the figure is measured in relation to the size of the population, the UK comes behind Belgium, the Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland and Austria.

In other words, the UK is by no means alone in being somewhere asylum seekers want to be.

Of 322,460 applications for asylum throughout the EU in 2000, 76,850 were in the UK. This is 23.8%.

So what could the reasons be?

A soft touch?

Professor Bill Jordan of Exeter University, who conducted research into asylum seekers' motivations, said the widespread notion that the UK was the most generous place to come was simply not true.

Would-be immigrants have been found under Eurostar trains

Asylum seekers are entitled to vouchers worth £36.54 a week in the UK, of which £10 is exchangeable for cash. This figure is 30% below the level of normal income support.

"People obviously for a long time laboured under the delusion that people came here for the social benefits. Even when asylum seekers were entitled to benefits this was not true, because other countries have much more generous systems," he says

Job opportunities

Evidence suggests that the chances of working is a significant draw. This could be either working illegally as an asylum seeker who, in their first six months in the country, are not allowed to work, or as an illegal immigrant.

In a study of the shadow - or "black" - economy, Mr Jordan found the belief among asylum seekers that it was much easier to find work in the UK. This was partly because the labour market was less rigorously policed here than in other European countries.

While there are immigration officers working at the ports and airports, he says there are just 500 working internally within the UK.

This is less than the number of similar posts in even the smallest of the German Länder (states).

Last year the government revealed there had been just a handful of prosecutions for working illegally, and vowed to tackle the issue.

Friends and family

Asylum seekers tend to want to go to places where they already have connections, either families or friends or existing communities.

No work allowed for six months

The UNHCR says that the presence of their own community is the factor most likely to sway asylum seekers rather than benefits or reception standards.

Mr Jordan says: "The main reason they would come would be that there are networks of people from their own country in this country, and that they think they can get by without being dispersed."

This factor is linked to...

Language

An ability to speak the language of their destination country is a powerful influence. Often this is linked to a shared colonial heritage.

A practical example of this is that 96% of Mali asylum seekers lodge applications in France and 45% of Sri Lankan asylum seekers come to the UK.

But with the size of the English-speaking population around the world, it would not be surprising if English-speaking countries found many asylum seekers applying to them.

Different laws

An additional influence might be the differing laws between EU member states. The Refugee Council says: "Unfortunately, some democratic European countries may not be as safe for asylum seekers as we think.

"Different countries have different interpretations of the United Nations Convention Relating to Refugees, which means that one may offer protection where another refuses an application.

"France, for example, may not necessarily grant refugee status to Algerian asylum seekers escaping violence from militant groups, as France does not offer protection to those fleeing persecution from any group acting independently of the government."

Chances of staying

One factor which the shadow home secretary, Ann Widdecombe, has pointed to is the chances of removal from the UK.

She says that asylum seekers know that, even if their case is flimsy or fraudulent, "the chances of them being removed is very, very small".

The lorry in which 58 dead Chinese were found

If an asylum application is turned down, then the applicant is asked to leave. If they do not go voluntarily, they can be deported.

The UK's target for removals in 2000-01 was 12,000 applicants, not including dependents. About 9,000 were actually removed in this period.

The target for 2001-2 is 30,000 removals, a figure which includes dependents. It works out as equivalent to between 21,500 and 26,000 principal applicants.