Uncertain future for Glasgow asylum seekers
March 8, 2011 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
The transfer of services for asylum seekers from Glasgow City Council to Ypeople, a private provider of housing and support, has been marked by the reticence of Ypeople to submit to legal requirements over the transfer of staff.
Source: Herald Scotland
Glasgow housing contract termination delayed
January 31, 2011 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
UKBA has extended Glasgow city council’s contract to house dispersed asylum seekers. The contract was due to be terminated on 2 February.
Source: Inside Housing
Second exodus may add to plight of UK refugees
January 15, 2011 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
This article was first published 14 January 2011 (Ekklesia)
By Annabel Turner
More than two months have passed since the government announced that the budget for social housing would be cut by more than 50 percent, making it one of the worst affected areas under the coalition’s Spending Review. As many of the UK’s 280,000 refugees and asylum seekers are living in social housing at present.
4.5 million people already on the waiting list for social housing will initially bear the brunt of the cuts to housing benefits, being expected to pay up to 80 per cent of market rental rates.
The idea is to create revenue for 150,000 new and ‘affordable’ social homes – meaning that the poor are to pay for the poor. And the plans to lower the cap on housing benefits will price many out of the UK’s affordable housing schemes altogether, particularly in central London. The push for social housing to be ‘temporary’ and ’short term’ will mean that all social housing tenants remain in vulnerable circumstances until they are forced to find alternative, private accommodation. The plans in their entirety can only be viewed as a reverse of the UK’s previous social housing scheme.
The effective social cleansing of London seems imminent. As these plans are implemented over the next five years, the poor will inevitably be priced out of central London and into the suburbs. At the same time, the push for private investment in the UK is being vehemently encouraged, a move that will place London’s already unaffordable housing far from reach.
Along with almost every local government across the UK, London Mayor Boris Johnson spoke out against these cuts back in October. Consequently, the government has delayed introducing the cap on housing benefits by nine months, now set to begin in January 2012. But this does not reflect an ideological victory for the protestors or even a significant change in the coalition government’s grand designs. It is merely a response to the fears of local governments, especially outer city local governments, who do not have the practical means available to deal with the fall out envisaged by these cuts.
So while in recent weeks, student demonstrations have grabbed the full attention of everyone across the UK, those most cruelly affected by the coalition’s cuts remain in the shadows. According to research carried out by the Citizens Advice Bureau, 18,000 households in London will be affected by these caps over the next four years. The majority of these households are families with children. It is the poor, the young, the elderly, the isolated and the vulnerable that will be most severely affected.
And amongst them will be many refugees. Over the past ten years, tens of thousands of people seeking asylum have arrived in the UK from Iraq and Afghanistan. The UK is also home to many more refugees from Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan, Burma and Iran. Almost all the refugees who have arrived to the UK over the past two decades will be affected by the planned changes to social housing.
At present, once an asylum seeker is granted refugee status and indefinite leave to remain in the UK, they receive the same entitlements as all UK citizens with regards to social housing. Individuals can apply for temporary accommodation pending the results of an asylum application, but this must be vacated almost immediately once refugee status has been approved. Refugees must then adhere to the majority rules and register as homeless, join local council waiting lists or seek private accommodation. As with all of the UK’s social housing applications, families with children or dependents are given priority.
The new cuts may well create an exodus of London’s poor from the inner city. If this is so, for the refugees and asylum seekers living in London the plans will create a second exodus. Many will find their housing benefits are reduced, while their rental costs increase beyond their means. Many will be forced to relocate away from where they have only recently founded roots and begun to establish lives. Many asylum seekers who are currently living in hostels and guest houses will be shipped into more remote locations.
Refugees and asylum seekers arriving to the UK have already endured often unimaginable hardships, both during their journey, and since their arrival in the UK. Many have fled from war, violence and persecution. Many are dealing with depression and post traumatic stress disorder. Many become isolated and must overcome language barriers, stigmatism and discrimination.
And this comes against a backdrop of increasing restrictions on refugee and migrant entitlements in the UK. The government has already announced a cap on immigration this year. The £500 million planned reduction in funds to the UK Borders Agency, as well as cuts and changes to Legal Aid will inevitably reduce the level of support services presently provided.
With local governments and communities facing average cuts of around 40 per cent, local organisations working to support refugees and asylum seekers in the UK are soon to be confronted by dramatic reductions to their funding.
Earlier this year the government allowed Refugee and Migrant Justice (RMJ) to fall into administration. This was based on a ‘bureaucratic’ loophole that meant the organisation went into bankruptcy awaiting payments from the Legal Services Commission itself. Since 1992, RMJ has assisted over 110,000 refugees and asylum seekers in the UK and the closure left behind the open cases of more than 10,000 clients. The appeal for short-term assistance with rents so that RMJ could redirect these people towards alternative help was also declined.
In June, the Ministry of Justice announced that asylum seekers would have to pay to appeal against failed asylum applications , making it impossible in most appeal cases.
The Spending Review states they will be “continuing recent tightening of entitlement to support”. To this end, the government plans to remove minors prior to the age of 17, before they have the right to apply for asylum as an adult.
Earlier this year, the UK Borders Agency also announced they will build a £4 million ‘reintegration centre’ in Kabul, with the aim of returning those unsuccessful in their asylum applications to Afghanistan. This came with the news that they plan to forcibly return many of the 4,200 unaccompanied child asylum seekers to Afghanistan through this scheme. The obvious safety and welfare concerns raised by these proposals were voiced by various UK human rights organisations.
In December, Nick Clegg announced that holding the children of failed asylum seekers in immigration detention centres would end completely by May 2011. Following this, Charities raised concerns that detention centres with ’supervised accommodation’ were doing nothing more than re-branding an inhumane policy.
If the UK government is unwilling to take more responsibility for two continuing wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan; if it is not willing to reconsider its role in conflict around the world, especially considering the UK’s arms exports; and if it is so willing to close the door to refugees and asylum seekers who are desperately seeking refuge in the UK then can it be forced to remember those who are already here?
The Coalition’s Spending Review revealed an assault against the UK’s social welfare system as a whole. The unions are joining students and supporting wider protests across the country. However, many of those most brutally affected by the Spending Review are those most unable to speak out against it. Many of the refugees and asylum seekers in the UK literally do not have an English voice to speak out against the challenges they are facing. Among the significant objections to the cuts to social housing, the impact on refugees and asylum seekers must be emphasised. A reminder to this government of its human responsibility to all the refugees and asylum seekers in the UK is urgent.
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© Annabel Turner currently works in a West London based refugee organisation. She holds an MA in International Conflict Studies from King’s College London.
Minister in Glasgow to discuss asylum housing
December 23, 2010 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
A UK Government minister was in Glasgow to discuss how to provide for asylum seekers after a contract with the council was scrapped.
David Mundell, Scotland Office Minister, spoke to a Glasgow MP, councillors and those dealing with asylum seekers.
Glasgow Central MP Anas Sarwar invited Mr Mundell to come to Glasgow and speak directly to people in the city, after the 10 year contract came to an abrupt halt.
Asylum seekers were given letters telling them to be ready to leave within three days and to pack only two suitcases.
Source: Evening Times
Glasgow eviction battle continues
December 9, 2010 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
(Institute of Race Relations) – The UK Border Agency’s (UKBA) shocking conduct over its proposed evictions in Glasgow needs urgent investigation, says Glasgow housing charity Positive Action in Housing (PAIH) (http://www.paih.org/).
Following the 15 November demonstration against UKBA’s service of eviction notices on 600 asylum-seeking families in Glasgow (read an IRR News story: ‘Asylum-seeking families in Glasgow face imminent move’ (http://www.irr.org.uk/2010/november/ha000035.html)), it was revealed in a leaked letter of 17 November that UKBA officials had not even met the team at Ypeople (YMCA Glasgow’s new name) which was expected to take over a large part of the responsibility for housing 1,300 asylum seekers housed until now by the City Council under a contract worth £13.5million and involving forty council staff jobs. UKBA has set a deadline for the transfer, involving over a thousand properties, of 2 February 2011, but in the letter, Glasgow Social Services Executive Director, David Crawford, expressed serious concern about the short notice, pointing out that the lack of contact from UKBA meant that Ypeople had not been able to start recruiting the additional staff it would need. The organisation currently houses only 9 per cent of asylum seekers in Glasgow, while the Angel Group houses 10 per cent.
Concerns have also been expressed at the decision to transfer asylum seekers to the Angel Group for housing. In September 2010, it emerged that Angel, a company which has made many millions from housing asylum seekers on behalf of the National Asylum Support Service (NASS), had moved a disabled asylum seeker six times in the city over a 12-month period, each time to accommodation which was unsuitable for her needs. Helen Bih, a Cameroonian mother of two children, said the repeated moves and the living conditions she had to endure left her ‘wanting to die’. Helen was finally rehoused in suitable accommodation following concerns expressed by organisations including The Unity Centre, Scottish Refugee Council, British Red Cross and the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, and a campaign by PAIH. Angel was also the subject of calls for a fatal accident inquiry (FAI) following the death in August 2009 of 23-month-old Afghan Jasraj Singh Kataria, who fell from a third floor window in one of its properties. The group asserted that windows were fitted with locks.
On 20 November, hundreds of asylum seekers, with supporters from PAIH, Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees, the Unity Centre, the Church of Scotland and members of Glasgow City Council, gathered outside the Glasgow office of UKBA and burned their eviction letters in protest at the decision to move them. PAIH’s Robina Qureshi said, ‘Our message to the UK Borders Agency is, maybe you can get away with these cruel tactics in the “England region” but not in this country. Scotland has a long history of peaceful protest and standing our ground against inhumanity and injustice.’ She went on to express disappointment at the coalition government’s silence on ‘the dehumanising and heartbreaking mass removal of some of the most vulnerable people in our society’.
Days after the protests, PAIH was told by sources at the City Council that the evictions would not go ahead, as UKBA recognised that its timetable for the transfer was ‘unachievable’, and that negotiations were continuing between UKBA and the Council, Glasgow Housing Association and Ypeople. Then, on 1 December, Scottish minister David Mundell told the Westminster parliament that the eviction letters sent out on 5 November were ‘inappropriate’ and ‘regrettable’. He added that ‘everyone affected will have at least 14 days’ notice if they have to move. Progress has been made. The initial letter was regrettable, but the situation will be better in future.’
PAIH welcomed the U-turn. But celebrations were premature. The next day, 2 December, UKBA began telephoning asylum-seeking families to give them just twenty-four hours’ notice of eviction. One of those who received notice to quit by phone was single mother Namir Rad, whose twin sons are to start at the local high school in the New Year. The news has shocked and upset the family, who have lived in their Maryhill flat for over two years. Namir was already taking medication for anxiety and stress.
These developments led PAIH to call for UKBA’s conduct to be investigated by the Scottish Affairs Select Committee. Its statement pointed out that UKBA ’seems to have learnt nothing from the triple suicide of the Russian family in Glasgow’s Red Road flats in March 2010 after receiving similar letters to quit by the UKBA’. The statement went on, ‘We believe that Glasgow City Council is the best housing and support service for the refugee families. However, if the contract is not going to be reinstated with the Council, then we believe that Glasgow’s registered social Landlords are a safer, more reliable and better regulated alternative to private accommodation providers currently contracted to the UKBA.’
PAIH is calling on supporters to write to the Scottish Affairs Select Committee, the Secretary of State for Scotland and the Scottish Children’s Commissioner, as well as to the UK home secretary and immigration minister about UKBA’s behaviour, and to obtain assurances that no more ‘24 hour’ eviction letters will be sent out to the remaining 600 refugee families.
Take action by writing to the people listed below, and copying the letters to home@paih.org (mailto: home@paih.org).
* Iain Davidson, Chair, Scottish Affairs Select Committee: davidsonig@parliament.uk (mailto: davidsonig@parliament.uk)
* David Mundell MP, Scotland Secretary: david@davidmundell.com (mailto: david@davidmundell.com)
* Tam Baillie, Scottish Children’s Commissioner: Tam.Baillie@sccyp.org.uk (mailto: Tam.Baillie@sccyp.org.uk)
* First Minister Alex Salmond, firstminister@scotland.gsi.gov.uk (mailto: firstminister@scotland.gsi.gov.uk)
* Damien Green, Immigration Minister: greend@parliament.uk (mailto: greend@parliament.uk)
* Phil Taylor, Head, UKBA Scotland: phil.taylor@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk (mailto: phil.taylor@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk)
* Theresa May, Home Secretary: mayt@parliament.uk (mailto:mayt@parliament.uk)
Or write to your MSP, MP and MEP. To find out who your rep is, enter your postcode in www.writetothem.com (http://www.writetothem.com/)
HAT News is precluded from expressing a corporate view: any opinions expressed are therefore those of the authors.
RELATED LINKS
Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees (http://www.gctwr.co.uk/dnn/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx)
The Unity Centre (http://unitycentreglasgow.org/)
Scottish Refugee Council (http://www.scottishrefugeecouncil.org.uk/)
Red Cross (http://www.redcross.org.uk/)
The Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture (MF) (http://www.torturecare.org.uk/)
Allocation of social housing to recent migrants
November 10, 2010 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
A report for the Local Government Association by the Chartered Institute of Housing.
Asylum system causes separation of familes – Report
October 27, 2010 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
By Emily Twinch
Accommodation support for failed asylum seekers is a major cause for the separation of families, says a charity report.
The Scottish Refugee Council released a study this month looking at the challenges of maintaining the family unit within the current asylum system.
It looks at couples who have come over separately seeking asylum and people who have met in the UK.
It found, one partner whose application has failed, who qualifies for section 4 [support, including accommodation, for failed asylum seekers] maybe be separated from his/ her partner and possibly their children. The other partner might be on section 95 support [for people seeking asylum].
‘A request can be made for section 4 and section 95 support to be provided at the same address,’ says the report Maintaining Family & Unity throughout the Asylum Support System in Policy and Practice.
‘However, lengthy delays inherent in the section 4 application process can lead to one partner experiencing a period of destitution and separation from his/her family while the support application is under consideration.
‘In cases where one partner is particularly vulnerable and needs care, the deleterious impact of such separation is even more pronounced.’
It also notes a lack of a ‘subsistence-only’ option – where a person only gets cash support, not accommodation – compounds the problem. The claimant must take up accommodation and cash support together.
‘One partner is forced to choose between remaining with their partner whilst being destitute, or receiving support,’ the report states.
‘This is not a free choice and definitely not one which any human being should be forced to make.’
The report also claims: ‘Depriving a child of the possibility to enjoy living together with both parents constitutes a failure to comply with section 55 of the 2009 Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act and the duty to safeguard and promote the child’s welfare’.
The UK Border Agency have argued any negative impact families is mitigated because failed asylum seekers are not in section 4 accommodation for long.
But the report says, 9,354 people had been on section 4 support for more than six months, as of June 2009 (Hansard July 15th 2009 Col 394W).
The full report can be found by clicking here.
Where do migrant workers live in a crowded, post-recession town?
October 16, 2010 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
OFF the road from Slough to Windsor to the west of London, behind a billboard for Furniture Village and under the stars, is Zdzistaw Karczynski’s home. His shelter lacks the fat beige sofa and soft carpet in the poster above him, but it is tidy enough: a single bed tucked under wooden struts against a park wall; an anorak drying on the line; a pot and a little cookstove ready for action; and, at a distance, a pile of unholy-looking rubbish topped by an eviscerated mattress.
Zdziko (his nickname), a bricklayer and plasterer in Poland, worked in Britain as a gardener until, two years ago, the jobs dried up. The 52-year-old has been sleeping rough for over a year. He hates the cold, and the thugs who recently beat him up.
Home to a large industrial estate, Slough has always welcomed immigrants, and felt more than most the rapid influx of east Europeans from 2004. Zdziko is one of dozens of migrants to Slough whom the economic downturn has made homeless. But hundreds who have jobs live in conditions that are almost as bad as his.
Authorities ditch asylum contracts
October 14, 2010 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
Birmingham and Wolverhampton councils have pulled out of providing asylum seeker accommodation on behalf of the government.
Both local authorities will withdraw after five year contracts with the UK Border Agency end on 30 June 2011.
The UKBA is currently renewing contracts for a year from spring next year and will then do a full re-tendering process for the usual five year contracts to start in 2012.
Both councils are in the West Midlands Consortium, through which they have the contract with the government, and cite huge waiting lists as a reason for their decision.
Wolverhampton to stop housing asylum seekers too
October 12, 2010 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
The news that Birmingham City Council is to stop accepting asylum seekers in the city from next summer is being described by one expert as a “disaster”.
The largest local authority will withdraw from its contract with the UK Border Agency (UKBA) next June, ending a five-year agreement.
Wolverhampton confirmed on Monday that it too will terminate its UKBA contract at the same time.
Both authorities claim finding a home for the sharp rise in the number of homeless people should take priority over housing asylum seekers.
