NEWLY arrived asylum seekers in Cardiff have been issued with brightly coloured wristbands which they must wear at all times if they want to be fed.
The asylum seekers are being housed by Clearsprings Ready Homes, a private firm contracted by the Home Office. They are told they must wear their wristbands at all times or lose their entitlement to their daily meals. They cannot work and are not given money but are entitled to three meals a day.
Eric Ngalle, 36, spent a month in Lynx House in Cardiff, where initial accommodation is provided for asylum seekers, before he was granted refugee status in November 2015.
He said: “My time in Lynx House was one of the most horrible experiences in my life. I hated wearing the wristbands and sometimes refused to wear them and was turned away from food.
“If we refused to wear the wristbands we were told we would be reported to the Home Office. Some staff implemented this policy in a more drastic way than others. I made a complaint about the wristbands to Clearsprings but nothing was done.”
A Clearsprings spokesman said: “Those clients in the self-catering units receive a weekly allowance in the form of supermarket vouchers and those in full-board accommodation are issued with a coloured wristband that bears no other logo or text identifying its use or origin. Full-board clients are required to show their wristbands in order to receive meals in the restaurant.”
Meanwhile, aid groups from across Scotland have put pressure on the UK Government to enact plans to allow 3,000 unaccompanied children into Britain.
Following calls from refugee groups and politicians from across party borders, the government is now considering bringing thousands of children into the UK to prevent them from falling into the hands of human traffickers.
The figure of 3,000, calculated by humanitarian group Save the Children, is said to be Britain’s fair share of the 26,000 unaccompanied children who arrived in Europe last year.
Downing Street insists no decision has yet been made, but International Development Secretary Justine Greening confirmed the government was considering increasing the intake.
Charity and aid groups are optimistic that a decision to take in more children could be reached in the coming weeks.
Ross Galbraith, who co-ordinates the Glasgow the Caring City refugee appeal, said it was critical to put pressure on the government.
“War doesn’t distinguish between families. It is the sad reality of war, natural disaster, or any circumstance of depravity that children will get left without parents,” Galbraith said.
“We, as a developed nation, have responsibility to look after those children. From the conflict in Syria alone there will be tens of thousands of unaccompanied refugee children making the hard and gruelling journey to sanctuary in northern Europe, but on a global scale there all millions of refugee children who cannot be forgotten.”
Campaigners from across the country backed the proposals, with Dundee activist Mike Strachan saying this was a chance to stop children “falling through the cracks into the horrendous world of child trafficking”.
Alasdair Roxburgh, Head of Humanitarian Aid at Save the Children, told The National that the group would continue to push the government to act.
“It is really crucial that the UK Government do welcome in 3000 of the most vulnerable children who have arrived in Europe,” he said.
“These are children who have fled conflict, persecution and extreme poverty. They have travelled and they have done it alone and now they have arrived they are vulnerable to trafficking and just disappearing off the grid.
“There is a need for us to welcome them to the UK and give them protection,” he added.
It has not yet been confirmed if the 3000 refugees taken into Britain would be included in the initial promised number of 20,000 refugees over five years.
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