What's Moral About Destitution?

I've started doing some voluntary English teaching again....as always ESOL classes are fully subscribed and the lists of people waiting to get the chance to learn are never ending. I've not been directly involved in Asylum "issues" since I started my new job....I'd almost forgotten how depressing the situation is.
The number of "failed asylum seekers" who are being made destitute and abandoned by mainstream services is reaching crisis point. The number of children being made destitute by our Government's policies are on the increase. The amazing Joseph Rowntree Trust have recently published a report on this found here.
An Iranian man who was a regular at the centre I'm volunteering at recently took "voluntary repatriation"- his experiences here being so difficult he decided to risk going back. He hasn't been seen or heard of since. It drives me insane with anger that for all the blather (good Yorkshire word!) we get from this Government about the human rights abuses in Iran and the undemocratic actions in Zimbabwe- these make up most of the people who are being forced either into return or destitution (ie no money, no right to work, no access to education, health care, housing or social services).
A friend of a friend who works for the Home Office recently told me that the reasons for sending certain nationalities back are often based on a political quota system. For example- with Zimbabweans, the government wanted the pressure of looking after refugees to fall squarely on the shoulders of other African countries- the theory being that this would push them towards pressuring Mugabe. As much as I am sickened by what's happened in Zimbabwe- I am even more sickened by my Govs. cynical use of vulnerable people's lives to make a political point. People who have experienced God only knows what being made destitute in one of the richest countries of the world.

Do something!

Oxfam's Poverty in the UK campaign.
Volunteer with the refugee council.
Student (and young people's) Action for Refugees
More info about people being forced into destitution.