ABSTRACT
The book starts with the experiences of disabled people subject to asylum controls in the United Kingdom. The purpose is not to prove the hostile impact of the ‘hostile environment’ as this would simply prove that the policy goal has been achieved. Instead, the insights that stem from lived experience are provided to ground the book in the knowledge of the disabling impact of current restrictions. The physical and emotional impact of restrictions is explored, considering access to food, housing, social care and healthcare. When people are prevented from accessing essential services and support, the result is to further disable people with existing impairments and to create new impairments, most notably mental distress. In this situation, people turn to different sources of support, sometimes from people from the same countries of origin or from voluntary organisations. The solidarity and resistance provided by people experiencing similar injustice and their allies is essential to survival. Without denying the pain and discomfort inherent in many impairments or the traumatic circumstances which cause people to flee their homes, this book focuses on the injustice that is socially and politically created, and therefore changeable.
