Can’t Stay. Can’t Go. Refused asylum seekers who cannot be returned   29 3.13 Documentation difficulties The documentation difficulties experienced by each of our refused asylum seekers are detailed in their individual stories. The Red Cross staff members interviewed also commented on the documentation difficulties they have come across. 3.13.1 General issues related to documentation Staff mentioned a number of issues that can hold up voluntary return or AVR as well as the process of making a further claim, such as a Stateless application. One issue is that the person might not have the documents their embassy requires to re-document them. One of the staff members from the Glasgow Red Cross provided an example: If you’re Palestinian, you get issued with a national identity card, and without that national identity card you can’t ever get any other documents. And you can’t be re-issued with that unless you’re in Palestine, or a close relative can get it re-issued. So, if you’re over here and you don’t have that ID card, there’s no way you can prove your identity. There’s no way you can get other documents. If you don’t have any close relatives in Palestine, you can’t get it, so you end up trapped. For one of the clients, we did a family tracing to try and see if we could find the person’s mother, but we weren’t able to do that…. So people are effectively stuck…. Then they just end up here destitute and homeless, and there’s not much you can do. (Red Cross staff member, Glasgow 2) One of the Red Cross staff members in Glasgow (Glasgow 1) mentioned cases in which the Home Office has impounded people’s documents because they believe them to be fake. The Home Office then refuses to release the documents to the client’s lawyer and the lawyer cannot consult an expert witness to verify the documents. Other issues mentioned related to cases when people have no documents on arrival in the UK; when people have lost contact with their family in their country of origin; and when people do not know where they were born. The transient lifestyle of refused asylum seekers also makes them more likely to lose any documents they may possess: They might have been refused two years ago and when they were evicted from their asylum support house, left all their belongings there…. So they won’t have anything. (Red Cross staff member, Birmingham) Through its restoring family links service, the Red Cross can provide assistance with tracing family members in the person’s country of origin. They may then be able to assist with gathering documents. One of the staff members in Glasgow expressed concern about the fact that the Home Office requires a person to use the Red Cross tracing service to prove they are taking all reasonable steps to leave the UK. He questioned the ethics of making the Red Cross part of the burden of proof: So then that creates ethical issues – in terms of sending people here and how does the Red Cross respond to that. (Red Cross staff member, Glasgow 1) 3.13.2 Issues relating to embassies An issue mentioned by most of the Red Cross staff members was that many people are not able to travel to their embassy (most embassies are in London), due mainly to a lack of finances. Even when they do get to the embassy, the embassy staff may refuse to see them if they have no documentation. Embassies will often not even respond to correspondence from Red Cross caseworkers: I mean, these people [Joshua from Ethiopia and Faheem from Palestine] in particular, they need to communicate with their embassy or to try and get documentation. We’ve tried repeatedly to try and get some sort of response from the embassy to either say they are or aren’t from that place. It’s impossible it seems. It seems impossible. You can try and write letters, try and write emails, try and call, but we never get any response. That’s to prove that that person is from that country. Yes, so that element of their case is incredibly difficult. (Red Cross staff member, Birmingham) The staff member from Birmingham went on to comment: I suppose the interesting thing with these two people is they’re just very open about wanting to leave the UK…. I suppose it’s really stark with them that they are very stuck. (Red Cross staff member, Birmingham) The staff member in Leeds mentioned some of the ways in which the Leeds Red Cross helps this group: The evidence [needed] would often be around proving their nationality. So we would sort of