A YEAR on from an asylum seeker’s death during an immigration raid in Newport, campaigners climbed the Skirrid to calls for greater worker rights for people seeking asylum in the UK.

Campaigners from Newport Sanctuary, Abergavenny Town of Sanctuary, TGP Cymru and Hay, Brecon and Talgarth Sanctuary for Refugees (HBTSR) were joined by people seeking sanctuary on top of Skirrid to call on the UK Government to give asylum seekers the right to work in the UK.

The call came as part of an organised walk to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the death of Mustafa Dawood, a Newport asylum seeker who died during an immigration raid in Newport on June 30, 2018.

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The gathering on June 28 was part of a series of events taking place across the UK throughout June organised by the Lift the Ban campaign - a coalition of 200 charities, think tanks, businesses, trade unions and faith groups calling for people seeking asylum to be allowed to work.

Mark Seymour, project manager of The Sanctuary Refugee Welcome Group, which provides support for refugees and asylum seekers in Newport, said: "Preventing people seeking sanctuary from working to support themselves and their families is unfair and inhumane.

"Current policy forces people to live in poverty while their talents are wasted. It’s a situation which delivers for no one.

"That’s why we’re calling on the Government to lead the way on this common-sense reform, which enjoys widespread public support.”

Currently, those who claim asylum in the UK are not normally allowed to work whilst their claim is being considered.

They can apply for permission to work if they have been waiting for a decision on their asylum claim for over 12 months, but only for jobs on the Government’s Shortage Occupation List.

Instead, they are provided with accommodation and support to meet their essential living needs if they would otherwise be destitute, which the HBTSR says amounts to just £5.39 a day to support themselves while waiting for a decision on their claim.

One of the men seeking asylum said: "I enjoyed the walk as it gave me something to do and it was very good to have been able to help someone.

"It is very hard to spend days without a proper occupation, unable to provide for myself, unable to help my community and with too much time to remember bad things."