Rashid Iqbal, manager of the asylum advice team at Refugee Action, said that young asylum seekers had fallen foul of asylum legislation that, since its implementation in January 2003, withheld financial support from those who do not immediately declare their request for asylum.
But last week the Home Office lost its appeal to overturn six test cases that decided that withholding social support in these circumstances contravened European human rights conventions.
Iqbal said that, since the legislation was introduced, Refugee Action had applied for several judicial reviews of young asylum seekers who had been refused support. In one case, the group helped a young woman who applied for asylum the day after she had arrived in the UK. She had fled Uganda after being held prisoner and raped repeatedly for seven months.
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