OPEN THE BORDERS:

For the first 12 months in the UK, asylum seekers cannot undertake paid employment of any kind, and are expected to live on just £39.63 a week. If their asylum application is still pending after this period, they can work - but only in jobs listed on the Government's Shortage Occupation List. Here too they may encounter the full might of British box-ticking. The list includes players of string instruments, but only in orchestras which are members of the Association of British Orchestras, and secondary school teachers, but only if they are teaching Gaelic. Asylum seekers' access to the labour market is therefore superficial at best.

The pointlessness of this policy can scarcely be overstated. For one, it makes it doubly difficult for new arrivals to integrate into the UK, as well as slowing down their acquisition of the language. Just as importantly - as the OECD has documented - rendering a group of people unable to work makes them vulnerable to unscrupulous, exploitative black market employers. The terrible working conditions faced by vulnerable migrants in textile factories in Leicester has been one particularly prominent example.

Just as the UK's current position on Ukrainian refugees is less generous than our European neighbours, the 12-month work ban is also an outlier. No other country in Europe has such a long proscription; in Italy the wait is only two months, and in Sweden asylum seekers are permitted to work on arrival.

The ban is also nonsensical from an economic standpoint. New figures from Refugee Action have shown that the ban on employment will have cost the taxpayer upwards of £876 million by the end of 2022. Conversely, lifting the ban removes asylum seekers from state support and would mean that they would be able to pay taxes. The Office of National Statistics has found there is now a record 1.2 million job vacancies across all industries in the UK - it is surely common sense to allow asylum seekers to help fill these gaps while they await a decision on their asylum claim.

Fortunately, the Government now has a great opportunity to lift the ban

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