Members' Business — S6M-05880 Bob Doris: How Will We Survive: Steps to Preventing Destitution in the Asylum System

That the Parliament notes the impact of the cost of living crisis on people seeking asylum in the Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn constituency, and across Scotland; further notes the research published by the British Red Cross and Refugee Survival Trust, How Will We Survive? Steps to preventing destitution in the asylum system; understands that the report was written by peer researchers with lived experience of the asylum system, through the Destitute Asylum Seeker Service; further understands that it outlines seven overarching recommendations, covering both the Home Office and Scottish Government, including that the Scottish Government should pilot a peer support system to ensure new arrivals through the asylum system can access support, guidance and friendship from people who have shared experiences of navigating the asylum system, that people with no recourse to public funds should have access to adequate support and increased access to health services, including mental health support, and that the Home Office should automatically grant people the right to work if they have been waiting for longer than six months for a decision on their initial asylum claim, or following the submission of further evidence, and that such a right should not be restricted to jobs on the shortage occupation list, and notes the view in the report that the Home Office should also offer an initial grant to asylum seekers to help them set up life in the UK, which it considers would lessen the likelihood of destitution.