Vulnerability and safeguarding

Any person can suffer harm from chronic pressures or shocks. People seeking asylum in the UK are often less able to avoid loss or harm, and more likely to be harmed, than if they were not currently within the asylum process.

Both individual factors and structural context contribute to people seeking asylum being more vulnerable to harm and having less agency to avoid harm than the population in general, such as:

• Ongoing impact of previous experiences and losses, from physical to financial before leaving their original country, or in transit, before arriving in the UK.
• Constraints on individuals and families once they have arrived in the UK:
  • Prolonged instability, uncertainty, insecurity of unknown duration, fear of being returned to their country where they face harm
  • Limited access to basic needs and lack of control over basic needs
  • Legal constraints and limits to entitlements and access, e.g. not work allowed, no choice in accommodation.
• Current pressures and demands on individuals and families: 
  • health conditions
  • immigration processes
  • access struggles, not having effective access to entitlements.
• Lack of trust of authority reducing the likelihood of reaching out effectively for support, sharing in co-production exercises or calling authorities to account.
• Fewer resources:
  • Financial insecurity, no credit, no capital, minimal income so lack of transport, access to paid activities, trainings.  
  • Few local contacts, less familiar with support systems. 
• Poor communication with formal and informal bodies:
  • English language or literacy needs
  • some with inadequate or no digital access
  • limited knowledge of communication channels
  • limited access to channels for voice.

People seeking asylum may be vulnerable because they are often unable to:

• Prevent or avoid harm to themselves, their resources or their interests
• Resist people misusing or abusing their power
• Put sufficient pressure service providers to meet their responsibilities
• Build strategies to recover quickly from harm
• Build strategies to recover without longer term negative impacts (e.g. debt).

People seeking asylum are often highly resilient, but their context and constraints make them vulnerable to:

• Abuse from more powerful actors on whom they are dependent, such as trafficking, exploitation and domestic abuse
• Physical and/or mental ill health (see also our Supporting changing needs page)
• Loss of opportunities to thrive and reduction of longer-term options, which could include where there is indirect discrimination
  • Not having access to routes or channels that reflect diversity
  • Not being able to learn from the lived experiences of diverse people seeking asylum
• Losing individual agency (where a person’s emotional, physical, financial or other resources drop to a level that reduces their ability to act effectively now and into the future)
• Adverse impact on the likelihood they will integrate socially, economically or politically later on:
  • Alienation, curtailed interaction and social relationships
  • Lost or underdeveloped skills, lack of progress in English language
  • Difficulties with economic integration
  • Difficulties with political and democratic integration, loss of voice and/or agency.

In contrast to ‘adverse’ impacts, at this time of vulnerability, strong relationships and positive experiences can also have long term ‘proverse’ benefits. ‘Proverse’ is a concept developed in the Design Lab as a desirable opposite to ‘adverse’. ‘Proverse’ indicates the potential long term positive impact on people who have received excellent support at times of great vulnerability and crisis while in the asylum process. A proverse impact would be if a person – because of that experience of good support – goes on to develop a proactive and positive attitude to supporting others at a later stage, as part of becoming an integrated member of their new society.

Harm can be a caused to people seeking asylum through chronic, low-level difficulties and losses whilst in the asylum process, including ongoing difficulties with access or prolonged anxiety and stress.  It can also be from a sudden event, crisis or ‘shock’ – e.g. a theft, violence, cessation of Home Office support on receiving a decision on their asylum claim.

There are protective factors that local authorities can support, as set out in the table below:

Vulnerability and Harm Risk Assessments are a useful way for a local authority to articulate concerns and prioritise actions is to assess where there is a risk of harm by scoring the likelihood and potential impact of harm in a particular context.

Most local authority teams are already familiar with forms of risk assessment in other contexts. Risk assessments are often linked to mitigating and preventative actions, including assurance processes for decision-makers. Local authorities can extend the use of risk assessments to this context without additional training.

The table below sets out an example risk assessment for vulnerability and harms, where the area of concern is the nutrition of babies at weaning stage in a hotel following complaints from residents:

A safeguarding concern may relate to physical or health needs such as diabetes, pregnancy, disabilities or impaired mobility, learning difficulties, domestic abuse, mental ill health or other concerns.

Where there is a safeguarding concern for an individual the Home Office (Via information from Migrant Help) should take this into account in decisions affecting that individual (such as moving people between hotels, room sharing, additional facilities, providing for special nutritional needs, transport for appointments).

However, individuals who may be unwell or vulnerable are expected to inform the Home Office if they have any safeguarding needs when they arrival in the UK, or when claiming asylum and/or at their initial interview. If they have not, or if new needs arise, or they become more unwell, they are expected to inform reception staff in hotels, and will normally be required to provide evidence from medical or other professionals. Hotels may require evidence before making changes, e.g. requiring letters from GPs about nutritional needs.

Professionals who interact with at risk or potentially vulnerable people need to be live to the warning signs of risk, and not rely on the at-risk individual to disclose. All organisations have statutory safeguarding duties and local authorities, sometimes working closely with NHS colleagues and experts. The Asylum Safeguarding Hub is available in addition to established local authority routes.