In 2018, entrepreneur Miguel and his wife, a surgeon, fled threats of extortion and assassination in a lawless part of South America and came to the UK with their two children to claim asylum. They thought it would be a difficult 12-month process after which things would improve because they would be allowed to work. But six years later, they are still awaiting a Home Office decision on their case and have been denied the right to seek work in their fields. Their UK dream has become a nightmare.
Miguel, 41, said: “Because my wife is not the main asylum applicant, she has been unable to work at all since we arrived. For the first three years she suffered acute depression and did not want to get out of bed.” Miguel was allowed to apply for work after 12 months, but only in jobs on the Government’s highly restricted Shortage Occupation List (recently renamed as the Immigration Salary List), which was designed to address gaps in the UK labour market. Jobs include “social care worker” or niche specialities such as civic engineer, choreographer, violinist or ballerina.
