The illusion of compassion.

In the last few weeks, I have begun to help out at a charitable drop-in centre for destitute asylum seekers. Some have waited for years for their asylum applications to be processed, and are not allowed to work in the mean time. Others face deportation as 'failed' asylum seekers, in spite of having suffered appalling abuse, including torture and gang rape, in countries like Sudan and the Congo. They all suffer from multiple disadvantages in terms of trauma, displacement and language skills. Although some seem to have GPs, most do not, and virtually all of them seem unclear about their exact rights to health care while in the UK. Although this might only make a marginal difference to many of them, compared with their other problems, I decided to find out more about their entitlements to free health care and prescriptions, and how to help them claim these. I was surprised to find out how much confusion there is on the subject. I spoke to a number of doctors who thought that anyone applying for asylum can register with a GP, claim free prescriptions or attend hospitals, but that failed asylum seekers could not do any of these things. Others thought differently. I logged on to the Department of Health website to look up the rules, and followed a number of links to a 42-page booklet: 'Help with NHS costs'. On page 28 of the booklet, I found the section relating to 'People from Abroad'. Here is a typical extract: 'People seeking asylum, who are not in one of the groups listed on pages 5–7 and are not supported by IND or failed asylum seekers need to make a claim under the NHS Low Income Scheme—read pages 23–27.' I began to understand why the people I had spoken to were so confused. The rules are not exactly transparent. Next, I entered 'asylum seekers' in the search box instead, to see if this might make things clearer. This took me to a different page that sets out the specific rights of various kinds of asylum seekers to NHS treatment. 1 The 'Table of Entitlement' is written densely in small print, and its language is scarcely less opaque than the leaflet. Some of its stipulations are draconian, while others appear devious. According to the table, people awaiting asylum do seem to have full rights to free health care but, once refused asylum, …