PAUL ELLIS via AFP via Getty ImagesShoppers pass beneath an electronic sign promoting the NHS Covi-19 app, outside the Arndale Centre in Manchester.
A Tory councillor has come under fire after suggesting £500 Covid-19 self-isolation payments would be an “incentive to spread” the virus.
John Fuller OBE, who is the Conservative leader of South Norfolk Council, told BBC Newsnight on Thursday: “Let’s not have a system whereby if you catch Covid, you get £500.
“That is an incentive to actually spread the disease, and that’s not in anybody’s interests.”
When asked by host Kirsty Wark, “Are you really saying £500 is an incentive for people to spread the disease?” he replied: “What I’m saying is… let’s not… I said let’s not have the incentive, I didn’t say it was, let’s not have an incentive that would encourage people to catch the disease.
“Our job is to bear down on it as quickly as we can.”
His words were condemned by Liverpool metro mayor Steve Rotherham, who described the suggestion as “shocking” and “an insult” to the people who have died as a result of Covid-19.
Shocking suggestion from the Tory I was on #Newsnight with that people would try and catch COVID for £500.
Nearly 130k people have died of COVID in the last year alone because of his party’s handling of the pandemic.
The failure to put in a place decent isolation support with sick pay, help and accommodation is one of the most monstrous failures of ministers in this pandemic.
And we’ve been urging ministers to do something for over 12 months now. https://t.co/ueE1lDPWfD
But Labour has said the payment – which can be claimed by those who cannot work from home but need to isolate – should be available to everyone without access to workplace sick pay.
The Test and Trace Support Payment applies to both employed and self-employed people in England, but there is concern that some people who need it are unable to access it.
On Thursday’s BBC Newsnight, the Liverpool mayor cited figures showing 70% of applications for the payment were being rejected.
“There is no one-off £500 payment that would convince anybody, even on low pay, to actually get Covid,” he said in response to Fuller.
“The other potential is that you boost your antibody levels so high from whatever vaccine you have that there’s enough to go around and you cope with the variant.
“We’ve certainly seen in this paper that the antibody levels are so good, really after the first two weeks, that we are pretty confident that this should be very helpful against the Brazilian variant.”
Asked if he is surprised how well the vaccines have worked in older people, he said: “We were. When we sent these samples to Porton Down they said ‘we can’t give you results right now because we’ve got to dilute them because they’re so high, they’re off the scale’.
“The antibody levels were so high that they’d gone above the thresholds so they had to dilute them.”
But he added it will be crucial to see how long antibody levels are maintained after people have had a Covid-19 vaccine.
“It will be important to assess that and whether they wane at different rates in people of different ages,” he said.
“I think that’s something that we have to watch out for.”
Although the new study did not look at the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine, Prof Moss said the evidence for the jab is that “it’s very, very effective”.
He added: “The UK has a strong portfolio of vaccines – Pfizer, AstraZeneca, we’ve got Moderna coming very soon, and Novavax as well.
“So yes, I think it’s possible that we can have very broad vaccine coverage across the UK very quickly.”
On T cell responses, Prof Moss said they are “better against variants overall” than antibodies, but he added the role of T cells in fighting coronavirus is still uncertain.
“I do think cellular immunity is very important,” he said, adding that a third of people in the study had no cellular responses detected.
“We know that, as people age, their cellular and immune responses are more difficult to elicit.
“Even influenza vaccines are much less effective in older people so that’s something that we will keep an eye on very closely.”
Prof Moss also said the UK’s plan to exit lockdown appears to be “on track”, with policies to control variants, the development of new vaccines and a strong immunisation programme.
“I think we can be confident about gaining control of variants with the current plans, and also leaving lockdown,” he said.
First author on the paper, Dr Helen Parry, a National Institute for Health Research academic clinical lecturer at the University of Birmingham, said: “Our research provides further evidence that the mRNA vaccine platform delivers a strong immune antibody response in people up to 96 years of age and retains broad efficacy against the P.1 (Brazilian) variant, which is a variant of concern.”
Yui MokPACulture Secretary Oliver Dowden takes part in an on air interview outside BBC Broadcasting House in central London before appearing on the BBC1 current affairs programme, The Andrew Marr Show. Picture date: Sunday March 28, 2021.
The Moderna vaccine will arrive in the UK by the end of April, culture secretary Oliver Dowden has said.
Speaking on Sunday, the cabinet minister sought to reassure Brits shipments of the new jab were still on course to reach the health service, after reports last week that the UK vaccine rollout could slide.
He also confirmed all people would get their second jab of the Covid shot within 12 weeks of their first.
Dowden cast doubt over whether people could begin booking summer holidays abroad, however, as a third wave of the pandemic appeared to be taking hold in mainland Europe.
Ministers have insisted they will meet the target of giving a jab to all adults by July, but supplies have been affected by issues in India and a row with the European Union over exports has raised concerns.
Dowden insisted that the vaccination programme remains “on course”, telling BBC One’s Andrew Marr: “We expect that in April Moderna will come.”
The US vaccine has been approved for use in the UK and would be the third to be rolled out after Oxford/AstraZeneca and Pfizer.
The culture secretary said he could guarantee that everyone will get a second dose of a coronavirus vaccine within 12 weeks of their first after doubts were raised by French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.
“Yes, of course, we’ve been planning that all the way through. It’s one of the most important considerations as we’ve rolled out the vaccine,” Dowden told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday.
Ian WestPAPrime Minister Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street to attend Prime Minister’s Questions at the Houses of Parliament, London. Picture date: Wednesday March 17, 2021.
He said that “we clearly don’t currently have a surplus of vaccines” when asked about suggestions the UK was planning to offer 3.7 million jabs to Ireland.
Professor Mark Woolhouse, who advises the government on the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (Spi-M), said he was “a little bit nervous about a full relaxation” planned for June 21.
He told the BBC the road map to easing restrictions in England must be “guided by the data” particularly on vaccines, adding: “The idea that we can suddenly emerge from this in one great bound, I think, is a little over-optimistic.”
Dowden said another lockdown “is the last thing in the world we would want to do” but acknowledged dates in the road map may slip if things worsen.
“Of course they could be delayed if the situation deteriorates but at the moment we’re on track,” he told Marr.
Travel abroad is currently illegal other than for a few reasons but a government taskforce will on April 12 detail a review on whether foreign holidays can return.
Dowden said “all options” are being considered when asked about a possible system that could allow shorter quarantine periods with greater testing for countries deemed less risky.
But he told Ridge there are “challenges around international travel”, pointing towards rising infection rates in Europe.
More than 2.5 million people have now received their second dose of a coronavirus vaccine, with more than one in three of those taking place in the last week, NHS England said.
More than 25 million people in England have been vaccinated with their first dose, with the number of people receiving their second dose reaching a new weekly high.
Some 900,000 people received their second jab in the last week, NHS England said, around twice as many as the week before.
Focus is now on ensuring those in the most at-risk cohorts have had the chance to be vaccinated, ahead of the target of offering all priority groups their first vaccine by April 15.
With a tighter supply of available doses next month, NHS England is urging those aged 50 and older or those with an underlying health condition to get their first jab.
It said three in four people aged 50-54 have been jabbed so far, up from half in the last week.
Dr Nikki Kanani, GP and NHS medical director for primary care, said: “The NHS in England has now vaccinated 25 million people which is an unbelievable achievement by NHS staff across the country, who have continued to work at speed.
“At the same time as increasing second doses week on week, the NHS is reaching out to those 50-69 year-olds who haven’t yet taken up the offer to be vaccinated.
“If you are one of those people yet to book a first dose, please come forward and get your life-saving Covid-19 vaccine which will not only protect you but those around you.”
You grab your face mask from your pocket, think “I really should wash this soon”, forget all about it, then repeat the process next time you pop to the shop. Sound familiar?
Just 13% of people who wear reusable face masks are washing them frequently enough and in the right way, according to a study by YouGov.
A third (32%) wash their mask after every use, which is recommended. But even among those people, only 41% wash them at 60 degrees or higher, despite the fact lower temperatures are not enough to kill viruses like Covid-19.
Dr Roger Henderson, a senior GP who’s been working with Copper Clothing on their masks,iscalling on Brits to take their mask care seriously to prevent the spread as lockdown measures ease.
Face masks become ineffective if they aren’t clean, he says. “If you take your mask off and set it down somewhere or leave it in your pocket, this allows for potentially harmful bacteria to spread onto other surfaces,” he tells HuffPost UK.
“Masks made from different materials will have different risks, but overall, it is best practice to wash your mask daily and wash your hands after every use. Really, you should be washing your mask as regularly as your pants.”
Isabel Pavia via Getty Images
The government’s website says you should wash your face covering “regularly” and follow the washing instructions for the fabric. “You can use your normal detergent. You can wash and dry it with other laundry,” it adds. “You must throw away your face covering if it is damaged.”
Meanwhile, the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) says you should wash and dry wet or dirty masks as soon as possible to prevent them from becoming mouldy. “Wet masks can be hard to breathe through and are less effective than dry masks,” it says.
Dr Ed Wright, senior lecturer in microbiology at the University of Sussex, previously told HuffPost UK coronavirus particles have a fatty, oily outer layer – and washing is important, because detergent damages that layer.
“That layer is required for the virus to be able to infect a cell,” he said. “If you use soap or detergent, they will interact with this waxy, oily layer and disrupt that, so the virus will fall apart and won’t be able to infect anybody.”
The World Health Organisation adds that you should store fabric masks in a clean, reusable bag when you’re out and about – shoving them in a pocket next to your phone and keys is not recommended.
The Covid-19 vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna are “highly effective” in producing antibodies against the coronavirus in pregnant and breastfeeding individuals, according to new research.
In the largest study of its kind to date, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Ragon Institute demonstrated the vaccines are not just effective in protecting pregnant women, but they pass on protective immunity to newborn babies through breastmilk and the placenta.
This is because there’s a lack of safety data from trials of the jabs. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which is responsible for prioritising who gets the vaccine, says although available data doesn’t indicate safety concerns or harm to pregnancy, there’s insufficient evidence to recommend routine use of Covid-19 vaccines during pregnancy.
Women are, however, able to have the jab if they’re breastfeeding.
In the US, women can choose to have the vaccine. The study, published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (AJOG), looked at 131 women of reproductive age – 84 were pregnant, 31 were lactating and 16 were not pregnant. All of the women received one of two new mRNA vaccines: Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna.
Scientists discovered that in all three groups, antibody levels were present and similar – and, reassuringly, side effects after vaccination were rare and comparable across the study participants.
The news of “excellent vaccine efficacy” is “very encouraging” for pregnant and breastfeeding women, who were left out of the initial Covid-19 vaccine trials, said Dr Andrea Edlow, a maternal-foetal medicine specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital and co-senior author of the new study.
“Filling in the information gaps with real data is key,” she said, “especially for our pregnant patients who are at greater risk for complications from Covid-19.”
The study is important because we know individuals who are pregnant are more vulnerable to Covid-19. Research led by the University of Birmingham and the World Health Organisation (WHO) suggests the risk of pregnant women being admitted to intensive care or needing ventilation is higher than non-pregnant reproductive-aged women with the virus.
Pregnant women are also at increased risk of severe Covid-19 if they’re from ethnic minority backgrounds, or if they have pre-existing conditions like obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes.
For the latest study on antibodies in pregnant people, the team also compared vaccination-induced antibody levels to those induced by natural infection with Covid-19 in pregnancy, and found significantly higher levels of antibodies from vaccination.
Vaccine-generated antibodies were also present in all umbilical cord blood and breastmilk samples taken from the study, showing the transfer of antibodies from mothers to newborns.
“We now have clear evidence the Covid vaccines can induce immunity that will protect infants,” said Galit Alter, of the Ragon Institute and co-senior author of the study.
Layland Masuda via Getty Images
A new study has found the vaccines are effective at producing antibodies in pregnant women – and these antibodies have been found to pass on to their newborns too.
The research was also able to provide an insight into potential differences between the immune response elicited by the Pfizer vaccine compared to the Moderna vaccine. Levels of mucosal (IgA) antibodies were higher after the second dose of Moderna compared to the second dose of Pfizer.
The finding is important for all individuals, since SARS-CoV-2 is acquired through mucosal surfaces like the nose, mouth and eyes, said Kathryn Gray, an obstetrician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and another author of the study.
“It also holds special importance for pregnant and lactating women because IgA is a key antibody present in breastmilk,” she added.
A Tory former cabinet minister has warned the government against forcing care home staff to have coronavirus vaccinations.
David Davis claimed mandating jabs for healthcare workers would be “illegal” and in breach of international law.
But Downing Street pointed out that some NHS staff are already required to get the hepatitis B vaccine, providing a “clear precedent” for mandatory Covid vaccines.
The clash came as health secretary Matt Hancock confirmed the government was considering legally requiring care home workers in England to be vaccinated against Covid-19.
Hancock insisted “no final decision” had been made amid a review into so-called vaccine passports, but confirmed that ministers were looking at jabs being made compulsory for care workers in England.
The plans have emerged amid concerns of low uptake from staff in care homes looking after those who are among the most vulnerable of death the disease, with around 24% of care workers remaining unvaccinated.
However, Davis’s comments highlighted the potential for the proposals to run into strong opposition from civil liberties Tories, who are already preparing to vote against the extension of Covid restrictions on Thursday.
It came after the Telegraph reported leaked details of a paper submitted to the “Covid O” sub-committee of Cabinet which said that prime minister Boris Johnson and Hancock had agreed to the proposal.
Hancock told LBC: “Because people who are looking after elderly residents in care homes, who we know to be the most vulnerable to Covid, they have a duty of care not to pass on the disease and it is a reasonable question.”
He said “many” care homes had asked for this to happen, adding: “There’s a legal change that’s required and, as you can see, I’m open to that, but no final decision has been taken.”
Davis, who is a staunch civil liberties campaigner, conceded there were “precedents” for mandatory vaccines, including hepatitis B vaccines.
But the former Brexit secretary suggested the comparison with hepatitis B vaccines was unfair, insisting these have been in use since the 1980s and have a long-term safety record.
Davis argued that the best way to protect care home residents was to ensure that they themselves are vaccinated and are therefore at far less risk of death or serious illness.
Barcroft Media via Barcroft Media via Getty ImagesTory former cabinet minister David Davis
He told the Commons public administration committee (PACAC): “It’s illegal to require vaccination at the moment.
“We are bound ourselves by both UN and European international agreements to the use of medical treatment.
“Medical treatment as it stands must only be for the benefit of the person it’s administered to.
“Medical treatment must not be administered for, as it were, communal purposes – otherwise we’ll all be giving mandatory blood transfusions and so on.
“I give blood anyway, but you’d have requirements like that.
“So that’s against both international and national laws.
“The answer… is to solve the problem by the method which is legal and acceptable, which is to vaccinate the people who are at risk.
“Look, if I were running a care home, and I am very pro-vaccines, I would say to all my workers – I would like you to vaccinate in the interests of our clients.
“But I couldn’t force it, and I don’t foresee a way which we can force it.
“And if you tried to say it’s now a requirement of your job, I don’t think the courts would uphold it – apart from anything else because you are costing someone their job for a requirement which can’t be enforced in law.”
Responding, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “This is something that happens already, for example doctors are required to have the hepatitis B vaccine.
“So there is a clear precedent for this proposition, elderly people in care homes are the most vulnerable to this disease.
“And this is something that care homes have actually called for.”
It came as the Independent Care Group, which represents providers in York and North Yorkshire, said making the vaccine mandatory for care workers could put people off from joining the sector.
WPA Pool via Getty ImagesA member of staff receives the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at the Abercorn House care home in Scotland on December 14
Chair Mike Padgham said it is vital care workers get vaccinated but it should be voluntary, adding: “I think rather than force it through legislation, the government has more work to do in terms of persuading everyone, not just care workers, about how important it is that the whole country has the vaccine so that we are all protected.”
Davis also cautioned the government against introducing so-called vaccine passports to allow immunised people to do certain activities, for example visiting a pub or attending a football match.
He said introducing Covid status certificates, which are currently being reviewed by the government, could be discriminatory against communities reluctant to take up the vaccine.
Davis told MPs: “The impact of this would be discriminatory. Under the law, it would be indirectly discriminatory and that is illegal.
“You may well find, it has been said, that Black and ethnic minority communities are less inclined to get vaccinated, well that would be indirect discrimination.”
Younger people were also less likely to have the jab and “some people have ethical or religious objections”, he said.
“There are a variety of good reasons for people not to take a vaccine. I’ve had a vaccine and I think most of the reasons are not ones I would subscribe to.
“But people have that freedom. What this proposal does is, in effect, coerce those people.”
Grunting, nasal flare and poor appetite have been listed as additional symptoms of Covid-19 in children and young people under the age of 18.
Throughout the pandemic, the NHS has listed the main symptoms of coronavirus in children as: a high temperature; a new, continuous cough; and a loss or change to sense of smell or taste.
But a new guideline from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) sheds more light on additional symptoms of the virus children and teens may experience.
NICE, which offers advice and information services to health, public health and social care professionals including the NHS, has published a single guideline – sort of like a ‘one-stop shop’ for Covid information – for the management of Covid-19 in both children and adults.
A NICE spokesperson tells HuffPost UK previous guidance about Covid-19 symptoms only covered adults over the age of 18, whereas the new guideline includes young people and children.
“The symptoms listed for children are not new symptoms but are recognised in peer reviewed studies,” they explain. “This evidence was examined by the guideline panel and brought into our overall guideline so that the information is all in one place for clinicians.”
They noted that, as with other areas in this guideline, it may evolve over time as additional evidence emerges.
njekaterina via Getty Images
The guideline is for health and care practitioners, and those involved in planning and delivering services. In it, NICE lists additional symptoms of Covid-19 that can present in children and young people under the age of 18.
These include:
Grunting. This sound can be heard each time they exhale and can be a sign of respiratory distress in children.
Nasal flare. In babies especially, enlargement of the nostrils during breathing can also be a sign of respiratory distress.
Nasal congestion.
Poor appetite.
Gastrointestinal symptoms such as stomach pain, diarrhoea, nausea or vomiting.
Skin rash.
Conjunctivitis.
Children and young people are likely to feel much better in a week if their symptoms are mild, reads the guidance, however if their symptoms worsen, parents are advised to contact NHS 111 online.
The presence of symptoms such as fever, rash, abdominal pain, diarrhoea or vomiting may indicate paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome (PIMS), the guidance states, which is a more serious issue and requires urgent medical help.
As it stands, parents can only access PCR tests on the NHS for their children if they experience one or more of the three classic Covid symptoms. Children who are asymptomatic – meaning they have no symptoms – are able to have lateral flow tests as part of the return to school, in a bid to try and reduce the spread of Covid even more. It’s thought one in three people are silent carriers of the virus.
Dr Paul Chrisp, director of the Centre for Guidelines at NICE, said he hopes the information hub will support healthcare professionals caring for patients unwell with Covid-19.
“The pandemic has driven new collaborative and international ways of working, and by sharing high-quality evidence with our colleagues around the world we have been able to develop this guidance more quickly,” he said.
“By keeping abreast with the latest evidence, we hope to identify which guidance needs updating more efficiently.”
NICE’s new guideline also lists the key signs of severe illness in Covid patients more generally, which include:
Severe shortness of breath at rest or difficulty breathing.
Reduced oxygen saturation levels measured by pulse oximetry. Oxygen saturation levels below 94% for adults – or below 88% for adults with known type 2 respiratory failure – can help identify people who are seriously ill. In children who are resting, anything below 91% would also warrant medical help.
Coughing up blood.
Blue lips or face.
Feeling cold and clammy with pale or mottled skin.
There is frustration in the EU, which is lagging behind the UK in the rollout of its vaccination programme, over whether member states will get the supplies they expected.
Johnson is expected to ask European leaders this week to avoid triggering a vaccine supply war between the UK and EU.
The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is manufactured in several different factories, including two in the UK and two in the EU.
Downing Street said it remained “confident” in the UK’s vaccine supplies and repeated that the NHS was “on track” to offer first doses to all over-50s by April 15, and all other adults by the end of July.
Johnson said: “I’ve talked to our (European) friends repeatedly over the period — we’re all facing the same pandemic, we all have the same problems.
“If there is one thing that is worth stressing is that on the continent right now you can see sadly there is a third wave under way.
“People in this country should be under no illusions that previous experience has taught us that when a wave hits our friends, it washes up on our shores as well.
“I expect that we will feel those effects in due course.
“That’s why we’re getting on with our vaccination programme as fast as we can but a vaccination campaign and developing vaccines, rolling them out— these are international projects and they require international co-operation.”
Tuesday marks a year since the first lockdown was imposed in the UK. MPs will this week be asked to grant a six-month extension to the government’s lockdown powers.
Asylum seekers who escaped war and oppression to seek refuge in the UK have been left penniless and in limbo during a national crisis, HuffPost UK can reveal.
Zakat is an obligatory religious levy and the third pillar of Islam, which requires Muslims to give up 2.5% of their qualifying wealth each year to help those in need. During 2020, the foundation distributed £3.8m in grants, a 27% rise on the previous year.
A Sudanese mother-of-three who escaped to the UK told HuffPost UK she has been living in a hotel room with her three children for the last five months and became ill with coronavirus while they all lived in the same space.
Saira,* 43, moved to Qatar from Sudan in 2008 with her husband, and the couple had three children.
But when her husband briefly returned to Sudan for his mother’s funeral in October, he was arrested.
Terrified she would be deported to Sudan and arrested too, Saira fled to the UK with her children to apply for asylum.
However, due to the backlog of asylum claims – which she believes is exacerbated by Covid-19 – Saira and her children have been living in hostels and hotel rooms since their arrival in the UK which she admitted is very difficult.
Getty imagesSaira, an asylum seeker, has been living with her three children in a hotel room for the last five months
“My children are really struggling and home schooling in one hotel room is very hard,” Saira told HuffPost UK.
“My kids are fighting and crying and asking when we can go to live in a home, and they miss their dad.”
Saira’s children – aged 12, 10 and four – managed to attend school for a month before the third national lockdown.
But even in that time one of her kids contracted Covid-19 and brought it home, and Saira became ill. “I felt pain all over my body and I started to cough and I could not move from the bed,” she said.
Home schooling in one hotel room is very hard. My kids are fighting and crying and asking when we can go to live in a home.”Saira, an asylum seeker from Sudan
Saira wore a mask all the time and kept the window open, even though it was cold, to try to protect her children from the virus.
“My youngest son wanted to be near me and when I told him to keep away, he didn’t understand and cried,” she said. “I felt very ill and still feel weak now.”
She came to the UK following her husband’s disappearance as she was frightened of being deported to Sudan from Qatar herself. She had visited Sudan in 2018 and was arrested, imprisoned for a month and treated very badly.
Saira believes her arrest then was related to fundraising and support for the people of Darfur, where her parents are from. “We made donations after collecting clothing and money to help people’s human rights,” she said.
“When they arrested me, I was shocked. They told me they knew everything about me and treated me badly.
“They pushed us around using their feet and I have problems in my back and shoulders because of this.
“I was alone in a dark room with no light and no water. I had to go to the toilet in the same room. It was very bad.”
She added: “I can’t go back to Sudan. Everyone I know there is trying to escape.”
Getty imagesAsylum seekers, who are already vulnerable, have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic
Then when lockdown began, Saira was forced to home school the children in the London hotel room they all share. “It was so stressful,” she said. “I felt very depressed and the children were restless and shouting and screaming and kept asking me questions that I couldn’t answer.”
Saira and her children are given food at the hotel, but it is not what they are used to and she admits often her children only eat the bread and rice.
“The hotel provides halal Indian food, but it is very spicy and my children cannot eat it. A few times, the hotel reception staff have ordered pizza for my children, but I feel too ashamed to ask for food.”
Saira was given shopping vouchers by the National Zakat Foundation when the organisation heard of her plight.
She has used these to buy food and snacks for her children and essential household items to use in the hotel room. “They helped me too much,” said Saira of the NZF.
Saira now longs for a home where she can cook for her own children and follow the procedure for seeking asylum. “All we need is to live a simple life,” she said. “We just want to be in a home where we can start our life in a safe place.”
For Ahmad,* a 40-year-old asylum seeker, the hardest part of being stuck in limbo with the asylums process is not being able to work and constantly having to say no to his children as he can’t afford to buy them things.
When the kids ask for something and as a father you cannot provide it, it is very disturbingAhmad, an asylum seeker living with his family in Greater Manchester
Ahmad lives with his wife and four young children in Bolton, Greater Manchester. He told HuffPost UK: “When the kids ask for something and as a father you cannot provide it, it is very disturbing.”
Ahmad was born and brought up in Dubai to parents from Balochistan in Pakistan.
He claimed asylum in the UK two years ago after being told his name was “on a list” because of his work raising awareness of human rights abuses in Balochistan and Dubai.
“In Dubai, carrying out human rights awareness was considered a crime,” he said. “It is forbidden and taboo. They thought of us as outsiders and foreigners and one of my friends told me my name was on a list, so we came to the UK two years ago.”
Getty imagesAhmad, an asylum seeker in Greater Manchester, feels frustrated at not being able to work and provide for his family
Ahmad applied for asylum but his case was refused. He appealed and is now awaiting an outcome. But in the meantime, he isn’t allowed to work despite his many skills.
Ahmad speaks several languages and was working as a customer care manager for a hospitality firm in Dubai. He is also able to work as a mechanic.
“If they gave me approval to work, at least I could provide more for my family,” he said. Instead, they rely on money from the government, which is just enough to cover the bare essentials.
“I am not bothered about myself, but it is very hard not being able to buy things for my kids,” he said. “I don’t even want to take them to the shops with me as I’m afraid if they ask me to buy something, I’ll have to say no as I can’t afford it.”
Ahmad says Covid-19 has also taken a mental toll on the family. “I feel like we are on a drowning ship and cannot move,” he said. “We just have to stand still and wait for something good to happen. It’s like your life is paused.”
A friend told Ahmad about the National Zakat Foundation and he applied for support. Within days, he and his family were given money to help them.
“I bought my children some new clothes and shoes and I have kept the rest for emergency,” he said. “I was very grateful for this support.”
We just have to stand still and wait for something good to happen. It’s like your life is pausedAhmad
Iqbal Nasim, the foundation’s chief executive, told HuffPost UK the stories of vulnerable asylum seekers during the pandemic had gone largely unheard.
“These people, many of them families, have travelled hundreds of miles in treacherous conditions to escape war and oppression,” he said.
“They’ve found themselves in a new country, with barely a penny in their pockets, and then been faced with the added strain of being left in limbo during a national crisis.
“Covid has delayed asylum claim assessments and left many struggling on meagre incomes, housed in hotels or B&Bs in obscure locations and unable to apply for additional support.”
Nasim said the charity had been able to use zakat to provide food and other essentials to thousands of asylum seekers, but much more needed to be done to help them.
Haaris Karim – Islamic ReliefA man carrying food parcels to help those in need
Islamic Relief UK, which works to end poverty, teamed up with the National Zakat Foundation to deliver hardship relief to asylum seekers.
Zia Salik, Islamic Relief UK director, told HuffPost UK people are experiencing suffering all over the country. “As Muslims, we cannot abandon anyone in need and must urgently provide help wherever we can,” he said.
“There is still a long way to go in terms of drawing attention to the effect Covid-19 has had on an already suffering community.
“We hope our partnership will inspire other charities and individuals to come forward and offer their help, especially as we approach Ramadan.”
