Croydon faces a flood of homeless asylum seekers, forced to sleep rough without food, accommodation or legal means to earn a living.

An agency contracted by the Home Office to provide support for asylum seekers has warned that Croydon faces "an impending crisis", because new legislation means most applicants are being turned away without any form of help.

Migrant Helpline, an agency which provides food accommodation and support at three large Croydon hotels for successful applicants, has revealed that since changes in last year's Nationality Immigration and Asylum (NIA) Act came into force on January 8, the numbers being granted support have dropped by 98 per cent.

That means that hundreds of asylum seekers are being denied support when they may have no food, accommodation or legal means to earn a living.

Migrant Helpline's head of development Tony Fuller told the Guardian: "It's quite clear that perhaps 70 or 80 people a day are being abandoned without any form of support when they are forbidden to work.

"They will not be able to find accommodation and support for long. Should the Home Office keep to this policy, in two or three months Croydon will notice a huge increase in the number of people sleeping rough on the streets."

The Act, which was passed in November, contained tough new rules to tackle abuse of asylum support and benefits, with section 57 requiring all applicants to apply immediately on entering the country.

A Home office spokesperson said: "This legislation is designed to stop widespread abuse of the asylum system. People should apply for asylum as soon as practically possible. If they have been here working illegally for a period of time, they have to support themselves."

And the Home Office has denied that Croydon Council, social services and the police would have to foot the burden of increased numbers of destitute people on our streets.

"Local authorities won't have to take this burden on. If these people haven't applied immediately then they have either been supporting themselves or have received support."

Leader of the Croydon Conservatives and GLA member councillor Andrew Pelling said: "It is worrying from Croydon's point of view that in a few months we could start to see a visible effect."

A Croydon council spokesperson said regular liaison meetings were held with the Home Office but, to date, no additional pressure had been put on services.

According to the Home Office about 22,500 people applied for asylum in Britain in the third quarter of last year, mainly from Iraq, Zimbabwe and Somalia.

January 30, 2003 10:30