HUNDREDS of asylum seekers are still being housed in hotels in Glasgow despite repeated calls to move them to more suitable accommodation.
Responding to a written question in the House of Commons from SNP MP Patrick Grady, Immigration Minister Chris Philp revealed there were 237 asylum seekers in hotels in Glasgow as of November 18.
He was unable to give a timescale for moving them to appropriate accommodation, saying the aim was to get to zero “as soon as practicable”.
At the start of the Covid pandemic asylum seekers across the UK were moved from flats into hotels by Mears, the private company subcontracted by the Home Office to provide housing. This included around 400 people in Glasgow. Concerns about the arrangement were raised after an attack at one of the hotels in the city in which six people were stabbed by a Sudanese asylum seeker.
Fears had reportedly been raised about the mental health of attacker Badreddin Abadlla Adam, who was shot dead by police in the incident.
Responding to the Home Office figures, Graham O’Neill, policy manager with the Scottish Refugee Council, said hotels were not homes.
“No-one should be left alone in a room for months on end, without access to cash, especially not people who have fled war zones and human-rights abuses and especially not in the middle of a pandemic,” he said.
“People in the hotel rooms tell us they feel they’ve lost control over their lives and their mental health is suffering due to the isolation and the stress of living in one room without any understanding of when or where they will be moved. We needed urgent action on this months ago.
“It is imperative now that as soon as lockdown restrictions ease in Glasgow, people are moved into proper, safe, secure housing within communities where they should have been in the first place.”
Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken has previously written to Philp with a list of concerns about asylum policy and has yet to receive a response.
Councillor Jennifer Layden, city convener for community empowerment, equalities and human rights said: “Whilst issues to do with the asylum accommodation contract are for Mears and the Home Office, we want the Home Office to commit to no negative cessations during any lockdown period in Glasgow.”
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