STAR/Amnesty Sleepout

On Friday 24th February, students and citizens of Manchester will sleep on the cold stone steps of the Students’ Union. We will be sleeping there not for enjoyment of the North West winter, but to make public the destitution of asylum seekers in the UK, experienced by thousands.

Annually, the vast majority of applications for refugee status are rejected. Yet for a variety of reasons many do not, or cannot, leave the UK, and thus become destitute. The plight of these hidden people is what Student Action for Refugees (STAR) and Amnesty International wish to expose. They live in abject poverty, relying on others to subsist. Many are not eligible for the small, vouchers-only allowance for destitute asylum seekers. Since 2004, they have been denied free healthcare at NHS hospitals unless it is in an emergency or for treatment they were already receiving. This exclusion includes diabetics, pregnant women, and cancer patients.

In a report on asylum applications in 2004, the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee noted that ‘where the removal of a failed asylum seeker is delayed through no fault of their own, it is morally unacceptable for them to be rendered destitute.’ Clearly this is failing. Many of those interviewed for a report by Amnesty International suffer from mental health problems, exacerbated by their insecure position, and fear of detention and return. Many interviewees feared some of the women they knew had desperately turned to prostitution to survive. They live on the margins of society, having slipped through the cracks of the British legal system.
This street sleep out is being held by STAR and the Amnesty International Society. Both societies regularly hold events to raise awareness of and to agitate against human rights abuses, although STAR focuses particularly on the rights of refugees. Everyone is welcome to come and join our sleep out! Although, even if you don’t feel like hunkering down on the steps for the night, we will have food, music, speakers, circus fun and creativity to get involved with from 7.30pm.