Refugee helper criticises tents ban

A WOMAN from Henley who helps refugees who have been made homeless has criticised comments by the Home Secretary that living in a tent is a “lifestyle choice”.

Sam Jonkers, regional lead for refugee support charity Care4Calais in South Oxfordshire and Reading, recently launched an emergency appeal for warm clothing for refugees who have found themselves on the streets after being granted leave to remain in the UK.

Changes to government policy mean that when people are granted refugee status they have as few as seven days to open a bank account, find work and secure accommodation before their state accommodation and asylum support is withdrawn.

At the weekend, Suella Braverman outlined plans to fine charities that distribute tents to people sleeping rough.

Writing on X, she said: “We cannot allow our streets to be taken over by rows of tents occupied by people, many of them from abroad, living on the streets as a lifestyle choice.”

Mrs Jonkers said: “It actually made me feel really, really sick. It’s not a choice — nobody wants to sleep in a tent. We know a lot of these people really well and they have tried everything to do everything right but it’s just really difficult.

“Even for people who speak really good English, getting a basic job is quite difficult because they have no job history, no DBS check. Despite having gone through quite an extensive process to get a visa and the right to remain, it is difficult.

“The idea of criminalising charities that help desperate people, it just seems wrong. We should be solving the problem and ensuring that there’s a proper integration strategy in place.”

Care4Calais supports people until they get a decision on their asylum claim. But Mrs Jonkers says that policy changes, designed to deal with the huge backlog of asylum claims, means that decisions are now being made so quickly that more refugees end up on the streets.

Some of those who have recently been made homeless that the charity has been supporting include women, victims of torture and people with disabilities. Mrs Jonkers described the situation as “dire”. She said: “When it’s people we’ve known quite well, we’ve carried on a little bit to make sure that there’s some safe handover because to see people on the streets with no one….

“My phone is full of messages of people saying, ‘Sam, where do I go, what do I do?’ In many cases I don’t have an answer.”

She knows of five or six refugees in Wokingham and between 10 and 12 in Reading and Maidenhead who were made homeless last week and says there will be more that the charity is not in contact with.

A report by the British Red Cross last month estimated that more than 50,000 refugees in Britain could be made homeless by the end of the year unless they are given more time to find work and accommodation.

Care4Calais in the Thames Valley is currently working with other charities, community groups and churches to set up help hubs and night shelters and is distributing sleeping bags and tents.

Mrs Jonkers said she had been “very reluctant” to give out tents.

“I didn’t want to because I didn’t think that should be the answer,” she said. “I felt that was giving in and the answer should be something better. But at the same time, if I know people who are sleeping on the streets in pouring rain, then we’ve got to try to do something.”

One refugee being helped by Mrs Jonkers found himself homeless after waiting two years for his application to be processed. The 22-year-old from Afghanistan arrived in the UK in 2021. He was originally sent to London but was moved to a hotel in Reading last summer.

Like all those applying for refugee status, he was unable to open a bank account, apply for jobs or benefits or work while he was waiting for his application to be processed.

He said: “I got my leave to remain in September and basically they just told me to leave the hotel and then I was homeless. I was on the streets, going here, going there, in Reading.

“I’ve never been homeless in my life. I don’t come here because I don’t have food or something. It was just because I had war in my country and I couldn’t live there properly in peace. I come here and for two years they keep me in a hotel and at the end they just kick me on to the streets. That’s not proper. It’s not humanity but I can do nothing.”

He moved in with a host, whom Mrs Jonkers knew, two weeks ago. He is currently studying at Bracknell College and would like to start studying for his GCSEs in January. He has been applying for jobs in warehouses but so far has not received any responses.

Asked about the Home Secretary’s comments, the Afghan said: “Everyone wants to have his own house, you know? No one wants to sleep on the streets. Everyone wants to have a good life. I came a long way to here. I came past maybe 10 countries but it is not a problem because you’re thinking you will arrive there, so you don’t care. You have a hope. Here you have your hope, everything, and suddenly you get on the streets. It is not fair.

“I’m not talking just about myself. There are many people I saw in Reading in a park. There was like maybe 15 tents or something. People were sleeping inside them and it’s cold now.

“The Government should help these people because it’s not good to see them on the streets. They can do nothing. They cannot make their lives, they’re just trying to sort out a safe sleep place or to take a shower.

“Everyone plans something for their life, what they have to do or what they should do. I had my plan for life to do many things but it just doesn’t work, you know? I have no hope at the moment.”

Mrs Jonkers said: “It’s a government-caused crisis. They’ve made these decisions and haven’t put a strategy in place which most of the NGOs have been calling for for a long time.

“There needs to be a bigger solution to provide interim housing for people. And this doesn’t apply just to refugees but for anybody who’s homeless. The local housing allowance is nowhere near matching the rooms for rent rates.”

To make a donation, visit https://www.peoplesfundraising.com/
fundraising/refugee-emergency-homelessness-fund

The group is also appealing for hosts to offer temporary accommodion or people who have a spare room to rent at local housing authority rates. For more informatoin conact reading@ care4calais.org