Can’t Stay. Can’t Go. Refused asylum seekers who cannot be returned 7 > Where a person has been living outside their or more for a travel document (Home Office country of nationality for a long time and they 2016d). have lost their citizenship. BID (2016) lists the following additional factors: 1.2 What happens to people > Where a person is of mixed national parentage who cannot be returned? (e.g. Ghanaian and Nigerian, Ethiopian and Currently, families who have been refused asylum Eritrean). retain Section 95 support, which provides accommodation and £36.95 per week for each > Where a person has moved between two member of the family. For single adults, Section countries during their childhood. 4(2) of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 (HM Government 1999) allows for the provision > Where a person has dual citizenship. of support to a limited number of refused asylum seekers. > Where nationality has been revoked or renounced. 1.2.1 Section 4 1.1.2 Data on barriers to removal Section 4 provides accommodation and support to the value of £35.39 per week. This is not given Currently, no publicly available data set exists on in cash, but is loaded onto the Azure payment how many refused asylum seekers are without card. To qualify for this support, refused asylum national documents, or realistic means of obtaining seekers must be destitute. They must also fulfil any, and who are therefore not able to leave the one of the following five conditions: UK, either to their own country or anywhere else. However, there are data on the barriers to removal > They are taking all reasonable steps to return to or deportation for detained foreign national their home country offenders (FNOs) and this provides some insight into the factors affecting people’s ability to return. > They are not fit to travel The UK government aims to return FNOs to their home countries as quickly as possible to protect > There is no safe and viable route of return the public, reduce costs and free up spaces in prison. However, many of the same issues facing > They have a pending judicial review refused asylum seekers can prevent their removal. (Note that FNOs are not the focus of the current > It would be a breach of their human rights not research and did not form part of our sample. to give them support. Recommendations made from our findings do not relate to FNOs.) In practice, the last category is used mostly when the asylum seeker has further representations As at the end of September 2016, for the 648 outstanding. The absence of a safe and viable detained FNOs, the following were included in the route of return is rarely accepted unless there is barriers to removal (Home Office 2016c): a Home Office policy of non-return relating to the country in question (AIDA 2015). > Country situation prohibits removal: 19 If a person does not meet one of the five > ETD awaited – individual compliant, but ETD conditions and has no further representations awaited: 144 outstanding, it is not considered a breach of their human rights to leave them destitute and > ETD required – country non-compliant: 17 homeless because it is considered that they can return to their home country (AIDA 2015). > ETD required – FNO non-compliant: 7 Proving that you have taken all reasonable steps > Medical reasons: 9 to return is particularly problematic for people from countries with which diplomatic relations have > Nationality not confirmed: 25. been suspended, whose embassies have complex requirements that are difficult to fulfil, or who Furthermore, of the detained FNOs facing removal belong to a group that is denied documentation by or deportation, 106 had been waiting 12 months their country of origin (AIDA 2015). The fact that