GPs want asylum vouchers axed

Doctors' leaders today published a shocking dossier of the treatment of asylum seekers and called for voucher and dispersal systems to be scrapped.

Sending asylum seekers to different parts of the country and giving them vouchers rather than cash for food is putting their health at risk, the British Medical Association claim.

The call for a complete overhaul will add pressure on Home Secretary David Blunkett, who is considering how to make improvements.

Anonymous accounts in a dossier produced with the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture tell of mothers watering down milk for babies to make vouchers go further and a man walking 35 miles through the night to see a psychiatrist because he had no money for travel.

A baby boy had not started crawling because, living with the rest of his family in one room, he had no space. A family with a young baby was sleeping rough and had no access to shelter, sanitation or food for several months.

Dr Michael Wilks, chairman of the BMA's ethics committee, said: " Asylum seekers have often been subjected to persecution and possibly torture and rape. They have lost their homes and often their family. We are failing some very vulnerable people, whose health is actually deteriorating rather than improving in the safety of the UK."

He called on the Department of Health and the Home Office to work more closely and for local health authorities to be informed if asylum seekers are to be dispersed to their area.