CHARITIES and faith groups are “picking up the pieces” for refugees and asylum seekers left destitute in Scotland, MSPs have heard. And the Home Office is “profiteering” from desperate people, Holyrood’s Equalities and Human Rights Committee was told.

MSPs heard “harrowing” details of cases including a mother and baby who received just £25 over the course of eight months, a six-year-old girl who had spent her entire life in B&B accommodation.

Robina Qureshi, director of Positive Action in Housing, said it was dealing with “very desperate” people including one client who had been on the verge of throwing herself and her children into a river before receiving help.

The Glasgow-based refugee and migrant homelessness and human rights charity assisted 1400 refugee families and individuals in 2017/18.

Qureshi said: “The Home Office is making money by saying go and apply for limited leave to remain again and again and people are being left in that crisis. We are talking about people whose cases may have been unjustly fast-tracked into failure, cases where the Home Office is profiteering,

“Effectively what we are providing is a safety net, on our own, and charities and faith groups are picking up the pieces.”