Contrary to what you might read in the papers, asylum seekers are poor.
The support they do receive is 30% less than the minimum amount the government says a single person needs to live on. A single asylum seeker is expected to live on just £40 per week. Asylum seekers are not allowed to work.
Many asylum seekers who are refused status are unable to return home, so they are forced to survive without any government support at all. No money for food, no money for shelter, no money for the everyday things we take for granted.
Tonight, asylum seekers will be sleeping rough or on the floor at friends' houses. They will be relying on food handouts or eating in soup kitchens set up by churches or charities. 
This misery is a direct consequence of government policy. Ministers are using the threat of destitution to drive numbers down.
Asylum seekers are only able to survive through the help of various community and faith organisations, bodies like the Refugee Council and you – through the Just.Fair Campaign.
