[Picture from same article - copyright
guardian.co.uk, 15/11/2012 – Image Charlotte Colman/Alamy]
15.11.2012.
Last month housing professionals were reminded of the thousands of children
living on the streets of our major cities without legal immigration status who
have no support, shelter or care. We regularly hear of the rough sleepers on
London's streets and buses with no place to stay and no country that wants them
or that they feel they can safely return to. It used to be a hidden problem
confronting migrant community organisations and some homelessness
organisations, but only in the peripheral vision of the state. It is now
becoming a more open issue because it refuses to go away.
Destitute
migrants are often perceived as an amorphous mass of people who refuse to
"go home" because life on our streets is better than a life in their
home countries. In fact, migrants are a diverse group of people whose
destitution has many roots and whose dignity has been tragically eroded. With
no support, shelter, care or access to work, it doesn't matter where you are
living – in Lagos, Luanda, London or Liverpool, hopelessness still feels the
same.
