You make it to the UK
You want to file for asylum. As an asylum seeker, you do not have the right to work in the United Kingdom and so must rely on state support.
Housing is provided, but asylum seekers cannot choose where it is, and it is often 'hard to let' properties which Council tenants do not want to live in.
Cash support is available, and is currently set at £36.95 per person, per week, which makes it £5.28 a day for food, sanitation and clothing.
In the UK, thousands of asylum seekers are held in immigration detention centres each year. Under the Detained Fast Track (DFT), asylum seekers are detained for the duration of their application and appeal, in places such as Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre or Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre.
An enquiry launched by a cross-party of MPs looking at the UK's treatment of migrants and asylum seekers found cases in these centres of suicide attempts, detainees being handcuffed for hospital treatment, and of women detainees being sexually harassed by guards.The enquiry concluded that the current system is "expensive, ineffective and unjust".
According to MEMO staff writer Amelia Smith, although Syrian refugees are likely to be granted asylum once in the UK, the Home Office has still found ways to turn them away. In February 2013 former immigration minister Mark Harper authorised controversial language analysis tests on those claiming to be Syrian refugees, to determine whether or not they are really from Syria. If they are suspected to be Egyptian, for example, they are sent back to Egypt.
