By Dave Cartwright, Glasgow Labour member
The tragic incident on Friday in Glasgow where an asylum seeker seriously injured six people with a knife before being shot dead by police, shines a light on the dire situation facing asylum seekers in the UK at the moment.
Initial reports indicated that the man was from Sudan and that he was suffering from mental health issues. In fact, some other residents in the same hotel, which is being used to house asylum seekers, had previously reported their concerns about his mental health to hotel reception. Research from the Mental Health Council in 2015 showed that refugees and asylum seekers are five times more likely to have mental health needs than the general population and more than 61% could suffer severe mental distress, so the tragedy in Glasgow should not come as a surprise to anybody.
These asylum seekers are escaping situations where their lives were under threat, they have seen family members killed, or have been tortured. They have often been separated from friends and relatives in getting away. Then they end up in a city like Glasgow, where refugee charities make them welcome, but where Home Office systems do the exact opposite. The effects of Theresa May’s “hostile environment” are still well and truly in operation.
Private company runs accommodation
The company running the asylum seeker “service” in Glasgow on behalf of the Home Office was the massive private company, Serco who were roundly condemned for their policy of lock-change evictions. Their multi-million-pound contract to house asylum seekers was then transferred to Mears in 2020, who, when hotels shut down because of the pandemic, arranged for them to be used instead for the Initial accommodation phase of the asylum seeker process. This first phase is for newly arrived asylum seekers who are destitute, and their accommodation is provided whilst their appeal is being processed.
Previously, Mears arranged accommodation with various housing associations around Glasgow, who allocated had to them some of their most poorly maintained housing stock. At that time, the asylum seekers were given £35 per week to survive on. But in April, 370 of them were forcibly moved by Mears, with only an hour’s notice and four or five to a van, into cheap hotels where social distancing is impossible. Their meagre allowance, which amounted to £5.39 a day, was also stopped.
Unable to socially-distance
The asylum seekers have lived like this now for over three months, unable to socially distance because of shared facilities, unable to buy crucial mobile phone top ups, to keep in touch with lawyers, networks of supporters or family back home. It is little wonder that concerns have been raised about mental health.
In May there were calls for an inquiry, after a suicidal Syrian refugee was found dead in a guest house in which Mears had moved asylum seekers, again with no social distancing and no money. Some people were given less than a day’s notice to get ready for the move and to cope with the disappearance of their cash support. There have been huge problems with the quality of the food in the hotels. Some people have had to ask charities for food parcels made up of food that does not require an oven or stove which they would previously have had access to.
Insanitary conditions and poor food
In an article in the Glasgow Evening Times the day before this latest tragedy, the Mears Group were forced to admit they that failed to carry out vulnerability assessments on asylum seekers before moving them during the lockdown.
Many asylum seekers complained of “hotel detention”, of being denied urgent medical attention, of being told to stay in their rooms, of insanitary conditions and deteriorating mental health. It was reported, for example, that the refugee at the centre of this tragedy had been isolated in a single room with no window for weeks on end, with his food being brought to him, conditions, in other words, like being in solitary confinement in prison.
Charities supporting asylum seekers are now aware of letters being sent to them in the hotels asking them why they should not be told to leave (and face destitution) by the end of this month. This amounts to undue mental stress and pressure being place on people who may already have suffered extreme mental and emotional trauma. Many are reliving past torture or suicidal thoughts or suffering from depression, as well as enduring months or years of waiting for their asylum papers so they can get work and start their lives, and fulfil responsibilities to family back home. It is as if the whole system is designed to create the greatest possible mental and emotional stress.
Desperate for a new start
The Scottish Refugee Council, in a statement about the incident said: “We have expressed repeated concern over the last three months about the use of hotel accommodation for people in the asylum system. These are people who have lost their homes and livelihoods and are desperate for a new start, but who otherwise are no different from everyone else in Glasgow. It has always been our belief that people who are in Scotland seeking refugee protection require and deserve safe, secure accommodation – a home – from which to rebuild their lives. Temporary accommodation in hotels can never fulfil this.”
Ten years ago, there was a tragic incident where a father, mother and adult son jumped to their deaths from the 15th floor of one of the Red Road flats in Glasgow. They were Russian asylum seekers from Canada whose application to stay in the UK had just been turned down after two and half years in the country. Their deaths followed on from six other suicides by refugees in the Red Road flats between 2003 and 2010. The Guardian wrote at the time “mental health problems are prevalent among the asylum-seeking community with anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder the most common complaints.”
Labour must raise a hue and cry
Ten years on and we can see that nothing has changed to ease the plight of this vulnerable section of our community.
The Scottish Labour Party must demand that the Scottish government provide adequate support and provision for asylum seekers who have suffered enough in their home countries and here at the hands of the racists in the Home Office.it is the historic responsibility of the labour movement to provide help and support for those who are in greatest need of it and Labour needs to raise a hue and cry about the disgraceful treatment of asylum seekers who have fled to our shores.
June 29, 2020
