Support for asylum seekers in the UK
Saman's story
'I arrived very late at Heathrow and told the immigration official that I wanted to claim asylum. He asked me my name, where I had come from and how I travelled to the UK. Then he sent me to a hotel near the airport and the staff working there gave me some food and took me to one of the rooms to sleep. The next morning they helped me to fill in a form which they said was for accommodation and money for food. There were a lot of questions on the form.
That was nearly a week ago and I'm still waiting to hear back from them. I've no idea where they'll send me next or if they'll give me any money. If they turn me down I don't know what I'll do…'
If you are an asylum seeker in the UK you are entitled to claim asylum support (somewhere to live and money for food and clothes) whilst your claim for asylum is being decided. This is important because you are not usually allowed to work whilst claiming asylum. The Home Office department responsible for asylum support is the UK Border Agency (UKBA).
Download this guide as an easy-to-print leaflet - 
Support for asylum seekers (337 KB)
Asylum law uses lots of technical words, so see our jargon buster for an explanation.
Before April 2007 the department responsible for asylum support was National Asylum Support Services (NASS).Sometimes you still hear people talking about NASS but they mean asylum support provided by UKBA
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