Temporary ban on asylum seekers sent to Glasgow as city tries to 'ease pressures' following knife attack
Move comes amid mounting concerns about living conditions for asylum seekers in hotels during lockdown
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Your support makes all the difference.Glasgow council has announced a temporary ban on taking in new asylum seekers as it tries to “ease the pressures” following an attack at one of the hotels being used as asylum accommodation in the city.
Concerns about conditions for asylum seekers who have been placed in hotels during lockdown were heightened in the wake of the unprovoked knife attack last Friday, in which a resident stabbed three other asylum seekers, two staff and a police officer.
Two days before the incident, the chief operating manager for Mears, the company contracted by the Home Office to manage asylum housing in Glasgow, had admitted that no assessments had been carried out of individual needs before people were transferred – which charities said was likely to constitute a “serious breach” of the company’s contract.
People waiting for decisions on their asylum claims began being moved into dozens of hotels across the UK at the end of March, after the Home Office ordered its asylum housing contractors to source additional accommodation in anticipation of backlogs in the system following the decision to pause asylum evictions in response to Covid-19.
Glasgow is the only city in Scotland that welcomes asylum seekers under a Home Office-directed dispersal scheme. In 2018, it had the highest number of dispersed asylum seekers in the UK and took in more than 4,000 in the year to June 2019 – while 150 other UK council areas accepted none.
A Glasgow City Council spokesperson announced on Sunday that, although the city had always welcomed asylum seekers and would continue to do so, it was introducing a temporary ban on new arrivals in order to “ease pressures” and assist Mears to source suitable accommodation for those currently in hotels.
They said the council would continue to welcome families, women and children who arrive spontaneously, but that for the moment, single males who come to Glasgow under their own steam would be redirected to other dispersal areas across the UK. The temporary agreement with the Home Office is to be reviewed weekly.
“In light of the incident last Friday and the current pressures on the system, we have agreed with the Home Office that, temporarily, no one will be dispersed to Glasgow,” the spokesperson said.
“This decision has not been taken lightly. It is a responsible and temporary move designed to ease some of the pressures in the city at the moment and to assist Mears to source suitable accommodation for the asylum seekers currently in hotels.”
Stuart McDonald, SNP MP for Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East, said that while Glasgow had an “immensely strong history” of welcoming and supporting asylum seekers, a short pause in dispersal of some groups of asylum seekers to the city was “absolutely sensible” until it can ensure all those currently in hotels have been housed appropriately.
“With Glasgow having gone above and beyond, it is also more essential than ever that the Home Office encourages other local authorities to step up. But it won’t be able to do that until it offers a fair deal for councils – direct funding for the services they provide, and greater oversight in where and in what type of accommodation asylum seekers are housed," he told The Independent.
“The Syrian resettlement scheme shows councils are keen to help when proper support and funding is there. But so far the Home Office has failed miserably to offer that to asylum dispersal areas”.
Graham O’Neill, policy manager at the Scottish Refugee Council, said: “Glasgow has been a proud asylum city for many years, the largest in the UK, with many New Scots welcomed and making it their home. However, in common with many other cities and towns in the UK, distant from Whitehall, Glasgow has had to endure Home Office and commercial accommodation contractors, who routinely do what they like, in spite of the city’s wishes and plans.
"It is little wonder that Glasgow City Council have reluctantly had to demand a temporary pause on asylum dispersal so that there is time and space to get all those traumatised in this inappropriate hotel accommodation out and into safe and dignified housing. Asylum dispersal needs radical reform placing refugees, communities and local decision-making at its heart above private profit.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We have a long and proud record of providing protection to those who need it. The health and wellbeing of those seeking protection has and always will be the priority, and we will continue to provide support to those that need it.”
It comes after The Independent revealed on Thursday that hundreds of asylum seekers including pregnant women, disabled people and young children have been living in hotels across the UK for months, where they claim they are restricted to set meals and given no financial support for travel and basic essentials.
Charities have warned of a deterioration in mental health and wellbeing among those in the 33 hotels that have been procured by the contractors across the country. While in the hotels, asylum seekers are stripped of their financial support of £5.39 a day on the basis that they are provided with meals. Some asylum seekers have claimed that this leaves them unable to buy additional supplies such as toiletries and baby milk, and unable to use public transport.
On Friday meanwhile, a report by National Audit Office (NAO) revealed more than 1,000 asylum seekers had been placed in hotels before the pandemic, with hundreds unable to access basic services such as family doctors for more than 12 weeks because Home Office contractors had failed to meet acceptable standards.
In its report on asylum accommodation and support, the NAO said the Home Office had failed to monitor the contractual requirements of Mears, Serco and Clearsprings – the three companies awarded new asylum housing contracts in 2019 – to ensure they were delivering services, which culminated in vulnerable people’s needs not being met.