E/CN.4/1996/72/Add.4 page 15 58. Generally speaking, detention is a source of anxiety and mental stress for detainees brought on by uncertainty about their fate and the relative isolation in which they are kept. It can have tragic results, including the suicide of asylum-seekers. Others embark on hunger strikes to protest their detention. Cases of ill-treatment by guards, such as that which led to the 1991 death of Omasase Lumumba, a Zairian; have also been brought to the attention of the Special Rapporteur. 59. The bill on immigration and the right to asylum was the subject of heated debate between the Conservative and Labour Parties at the time of the Special Rapporteur’s visit. The two parties accused each other of using race as a campaign issue, with Labour claiming that the provisions of the bill were targeted primarily at black immigrants and asylum-seekers, and the Conservatives accusing Labour of playing on solidarity with the asylum-seekers in order to win the support of the ethnic minorities, who are sensitive to the issue of immigration and right to asylum because of national or emotional ties with immigrants and asylum-seekers. 60. In any event, the bill is aimed fundamentally at removing all rights to income support and other benefits from most asylum-seekers as from 8 January 1996. Some 70 per cent of applications for asylum are made after the person has entered the country. The Government believes that most of them are groundless because they come from tourists or students who are simply trying to prolong their stay. It believes that genuine asylum-seekers should apply upon arrival at a port or airport. 61. The Government’s arguments have been countered by the Refugee Council, a charitable organization that receives Government support to take care of refugees, which notes that asylum-seekers are entering British territory prior to submitting their requests because they fear being detained if they do so upon arrival. The Refugee Council has provided the following analysis: “According to Home Office statistics, in the last three years more than 50 per cent of positive decisions were awarded to in-country applicants. In the first three quarters of 1995, in-country applicants were twice as likely to be granted refugee status than port applicants. The Government, however, compares the refusal rates of in-country (80 per cent) and port (70 per cent) applications as part of their justification for these proposals. They argue that the claims of in-country applicants are therefore less credible. A 10 per cent differential is, however, no justification for removing benefits from an entire category of asylum applicants.” 12/ 62. Observers, including the UNHCR London office, believe that these measures will have the effect of putting numerous asylum-seekers whose cases are under consideration on the street. About 10,000 people will lose all benefits. They will have no means of paying for food or housing. Due to lack of financial means they will not have access to procedures for remedy.