ABSTRACT
The focus of structural violence becomes state's facilitation of suffering, and in particular the non-alleviation of avoidable harms as being a form of violence in and of itself; shifting attention from action and intent to inaction, poor decision-making and their subsequent consequences. This chapter argues that this is not the same as forms of structural violence in British asylum system. It documents the failings of the British asylum system from a critical perspective that system does not work to protect people who fear persecution, and in fact conditions can exacerbate impacts of previous harms. The chapter also argues legislative changes moving away from welfare and towards securitisation, easier deportation and the physical Othering through detention have in many ways facilitated this, complemented by the earlier processes of exclusion identified by Bloch and Schuster, Sales and others. It addresses the consequences of structural violence in depth through case study analysis; it is useful to glimpse the human outcomes of these policies.
