Changes to the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act in January cut all benefits to adults failing to claim asylum immediately on arrival in the UK, and represent a "brutal piece of policy", according to youth project coordinator Richard Payne, whose Scottish Refugee Council Youth Project helped the Somali girl in her time of need.
Despite tabloid reports to the conrary, the life of an asylum seeker is not easy. Having paid between 2,000 and 5,000 to escape human rights abuses, imprisonment or forced conscription, entering the UK can be confusing and frightening. Particularly if you feel the entire nation has a grudge against you.
The Home Office says 92,000 adults, families and dependents applied for asylum in the UK in 2001, 7 per cent down on 2000. In 2001, 11,180 applicants were successful and 19,845 were granted exceptional leave to remain (ELR).
An estimated 87,990 (74 per cent) were refused asylum or ELR.
But figures for unaccompanied young people aged 17 and below rose by 27 per cent to 3,469 between 2000 and 2001. The Refugee Council estimates that there are about 8,000 such individuals resident in the UK. Human rights legislation prevents the Government from returning unaccompanied minors to their home country if no guardian can be found - even if their application is denied - so support for these young people will clearly be required for the foreseeable future.
The National Asylum Support Service arranges accommodation and sustenance for asylum seekers while their applications are being considered. The Home Office refers the cases of unaccompanied minors to social services.
A Home Office spokeswoman says: "We follow the same procedures as those for for children under the age of 18 who do not have parents and are placed in foster homes or care."
But Judith Dennis, a policy adviser for unaccompanied children at the Refugee Council, claims young asylum seekers are not given the level of support normally offered by the system after they are placed in accommodation.
She says teenage asylum seekers could mistakenly face a life of destitution following January's legal changes.
"Age dispute is a big issue," says Dennis. "The Home Office has little time to determine a person's age and has to make a snap decision. Asylum seekers might not be able to cope and could be open to exploitation from people who seem to offer help."
The Home Office spokeswoman admits that age determination can be a problem: "With no documentation, it's extremely difficult to establish that they are minors."
Glasgow is one of the largest dispersal areas under the Home Office's strategy to centrally manage and distribute incoming asylum seekers awaiting application decisions, and the city receives about 400 each week.
But the strategy has not been without its troubles. A Kurdish immigrant was fatally stabbed in 2001 and a gang of seven white teenagers attacked an Iranian asylum seeker in November last year. The Youth Project's Payne admits that some racial tensions exist, but insists such instances are rare. He believes the people of Glasgow openly engage with visitors to the city.
Funded by the Diana Memorial Fund, the Scottish Refugee Council's project has, since April 2001, worked with young asylum seekers aged between 16 and 25 who are too old to benefit from a supportive environment at school.
"School provides the services and activities that can lead to integration, but older people are excluded," says Payne. "That can lead to loneliness, boredom and isolation. This project helps them avert that."
Young asylum seekers often come from well-educated and stable families.
Payne says many left home towns in Africa, Iraq or Iran to escape human rights abuses rather than poverty. For young people who may have been forced to join the army at 14, basic activities such as football or swimming can help lift spirits.
"They often have no money and get less than you would on unemployment benefit, so it's important that we give them something to look forward to," says Payne.
About one in 20 of London's population is an asylum seeker or refugee, representing between 350,000 and 420,000 of the capital city's seven million residents. This is about 30 times the national average, and has led to more intense scrutiny for asylum seekers in certain parts of the city.
As well as feeling pressure from UK nationals, racial pressure can also happen within asylum seeker groups. Ongoing turf wars between the Turkish and Kurdish communities in north London reached boiling point in November 2002, when a man was stabbed to death during a fight involving 40 men in Haringey.
In England's second city, Caitlin Bush, a project coordinator at Birmingham's Befriending Unaccompanied Minors Project (BUMP), deals with immigrants from Kosovo, Sudan, Somalia and Afghanistan, but says lonely young asylum seekers are very willing to mix.
"There is some conflict. But in my group, I've found there is a real interest in meeting young people from other cultures," says Bush. "They're open to new experiences."
Funded by the British Red Cross and Save the Children, BUMP was set up in March 2002 to meet the needs of young asylum seekers in Birmingham, the second largest dispersal area behind Glasgow.
As well as holding two evening support sessions each month at Birmingham's Ladywood Health and Community Centre, BUMP's team of four befriending volunteers take young refugees and asylum seekers aged 14 to 18 on day trips twice a month. To cope with growing referrals from social services, health services and foster carers, the team is to double in March.
"There was a need to support them in accessing educational opportunities and developing social, leisure and language skills," says Bush. "Befriending is helpful in decreasing the sense of isolation and developing opportunities with British young people."
This is also a key driver for the YMCA South East Kent centre in Dover, another with a high concentration of asylum seekers. The centre does not run bespoke asylum seeker sessions, preferring to operate about 10 different types of youth projects five days a week, all of which are open to asylum seekers, refugees and local UK youngsters aged 12 to 21.
Disciplines such as photography and poetry sessions are used to discuss friendships and cultural differences.
Joy Fox, the centre's youth work manager, says: "Young people realise there is little difference between them and that they have the same interests.
Our work is about integration in the wider sense. We never focus on the fact that they're asylum seekers."
The centre first began its work with asylum seekers and refugees five years ago, after a growing number of immigrants appeared in Dover town centre.
"Their presence at a summer fair inflamed the issue locally and raised awareness," says Fox. "We wondered where they go and whether they just hang around streets. So we helped them integrate into the community."
The project comes into contact with up to 150 asylum seekers and refugees via the centre and detached work every week, and regularly receives requests for help in translating initial entry application forms.
"We're the only organisation that is providing this support, so they have somewhere to go," says Fox. "They know they can trust us. Trust is a big issue with these young people."
Anecdotal evidence such as this suggests most young asylum seekers have more prosaic issues to face than the moral panics whipped up by sections of our national media, issues that a variety of youth projects are working hard to address at ground level.
LEE'S STORY
Although relieved to be escaping an African town where torture was rife and the police only acted if you paid them, 17-year-old asylum seeker Lee was filled with fear when his uncle said he was to fly on a plane.
Lee didn't even know he was going to the UK. After leaving the airport, Lee and his uncle travelled to London's Victoria station, where his uncle left him - with no train ticket. He has not seen him since.
British Transport Police directed Lee to a nearby refugee unit, which fed him water and biscuits and routed him to another centre in Brixton. He was alone, with just a street map.
Lee was housed with two Somali brothers. But depressed and scared, he struggled to sleep because of the constant wail of police sirens.
The next day, he went to Croydon and was placed in accommodation with some Angolans. He turned to the Red Cross for help. Lee was more used to feeding himself hand to mouth on a farm back home, so the Red Cross taught him how to buy food in a supermarket and make cheap meals for himself.
In the run-up to his 18th birthday, Lee is now studying at a local college while waiting to learn if he will remain in Croydon or be dispersed elsewhere to await his asylum decision.
CASE STUDY
Local young people help support the Croydon Befriending Project
- One of the biggest problems facing young asylum seekers is loneliness, says Jay Golding, services coordinator at the British Red Cross' Youth Befriending Project for Unaccompanied Minors in Croydon.
It provides practical assistance with translating official forms and counselling. "Mental health is a big issue," he says. "Unaccompanied asylum seekers can suffer from loneliness, as they're often stuck in a bedsit.
You'd think they'd be OK with 10 young people at their accommodation building, but they don't always share a common language, so can't always communicate."
Golding's centre opens its doors one night a week to groups of up to 25 asylum seekers, supported by young people and other asylum seekers who befriend those in need. In May, Croydon's Red Cross begins an outreach project to support individuals suffering from isolation.
Croydon houses the Home Office's immigration and nationality directorate headquarters.
Golding's project was set up two years ago as part of a national Department of Education initiative to create 22 befriending projects.
According to the Home Office, the main nationalities of asylum seekers in 2001 were Afghan (13 per cent), Somali (9 per cent), Sri Lankan (8 per cent) and Turkish (5 per cent). Seventy-eight per cent are male and 22 per cent female; about a quarter of all applicants are under 20.
Adult asylum seekers awaiting application decisions receive about 70 per cent of income support while children receive 100 per cent.
FIND OUT MORE - Croydon British Red Cross - Jay Goulding 07736 116417 - BUMP (Birmingham) - Caitlin Bush 0121 772 3175 - Refugee Council - www.refugeecouncil.org.uk
