Features
Card Failure Leaves Asylum Seekers ‘Humiliated’
March 7, 2012 Nicola  |
People fleeing persecution were left humiliated at shop tills after a series of failings by the Azure card payment system.
Asylum seekers were humiliated in shops participating in the Azure card payment scheme throughout Wales on Monday when the assistants told them there was no cash on their Azure card.
Thousands of asylum seekers usually have a minimum of £35 put on their Azure cards on Monday mornings to buy food and other essentials. But this week, that was not the case. The system went wrong and the card users weren’t alerted.
Joyce, 25, from Nigeria, was unable to buy food for her five-year-old son: “Today after dropping my son to school, I went to Tesco to do my shopping. When I had presented my card, the shop assistant said, ‘there is not money in it.’ I said, ‘My God, what kind of life is this? This is horrible! It’s not good!’ ”
Many of the card users have problems understanding English so had to go to the refugee council to find out what had happened to them.
Kadi, 53, from Ivory Cost said: “When this happened, I thought, the UKBA has stopped all my benefits again so I had a high blood pressure.”
It wasn’t until a refugee council officer contacted the Azure company provider that it became clear that there had been a system failure. However, they weren’t told when it would be solved.
And this isn’t the only problem using an Azure card can bring. Kante, 35, from Guinea, told us: “Some bad shop assistants when they see the queue is long, when you give them the Azure card, they ask you ‘what card is this?’ Some of them will tell you the money is not inside, others just tell you it does not work. They don’t want to the take time, they give you the card back and you have to do your best to find out what is wrong with the card.”
The azure card payment scheme, although useful when buying essentials, can leave asylum seekers feeling restricted with what they can buy or even where they can go. Joyce told us about an instance after she travelled across Cardiff to take her baby to hospital. After the child’s treatment she was left stranded as she could not use her Azure card to pay for a taxi. “It was very dangerous for my baby,” she said.
One woman, who can only walk with help, told us: “How can people live without money? I got these two [walking] sticks, I can’t carry anything. … I have to send people to go buy food for me while I have a shop on my street.”
Ahmed, 36, from Egypt said: “This is a big problem. I am Muslim and I only eat Halah meat but at Tesco, ASDA, Sainsbury’s there is no Halal meat.”
But Kante, 35, is very positive about the financial help, saying: “I receive a £35 voucher. I don’t pay electricity. I don’t pay gas. That is very good. It’s better than receiving nothing.”
But Kante added: “When the Azure card goes wrong in the shops in front of people you feel humiliated and people know you are not [from] in this country. It’s very sad.”
By Becken Bahumuka
[Image courtesy of freefotouk]
